Hays CISD Board To Consider Thursday Retiring Hays HS Rebel Mascot

On Thursday, July 16, 2020, the Hays CISD Board of Trustees will consider voting to retire the Hays High School rebel mascot.

The school district administration is proposing the retirement of the mascot as outlined in the district’s July 6, 2020 statement.

If the Board votes to retire the rebel mascot, a replacement mascot would likely be determined at a later date, in accordance with a plan, developed this week, to create a new Hays High School mascot.

With district attention concentrated on managing the COVID-19 pandemic and the extremely short timeline available to make a full mascot change in advance of the upcoming school year, the administration is recommending to the Board that the selection of a new mascot be delayed.

The district did attempt to conduct a top-choice selection process for a new mascot in early July.

However, the new mascot selection campaign was interrupted by unexpected circumstances that affected the process.

The administration does not believe it was able to obtain enough student response during this process to be confident that the responses fully represent what students would like to see as a new mascot.

Additionally, some students may have been reluctant to select a new mascot in hopes that the Board will not change the mascot.

A process to select a new mascot, if necessary, would be more inclusive following a final decision by the Board whether to make a change.

For full disclosure, and for those who are curious, the results of this preliminary new mascot campaign are published, along with this news release.

However, the selection of a new mascot would involve a separate process once school resumes in the fall.

If the Board votes to retire the rebel mascot, Hays High School would open the 2020-2021 school year as “the rebels.” Students who do not wish to wear uniforms with “rebels” on them would not be required to do so.

References to “rebels” on their uniforms could be covered.

The new mascot selection process, and subsequent graphics and branding design phase, would take place during the fall semester.

Though the campus could begin phasing out ‘rebel’ depictions on websites, walls, and other places around the building immediately, an official mascot change-over date would likely not occur until the spring semester or at the start of the 2021-2022 school year.