Students at Butler Elementary School joined the rest of Belmont in voting on April 6 and 7. They didn’t cast their votes for town moderator; instead, they voted on the official look for their school’s mascot.
Unlike other schools in town, Butler didn’t have a mascot logo. According to Parent-Teacher Association President Vera Savage, the school has always had the bobcat as its mascot, but there was no known artwork or depiction of it. .
“The absence of the mascot [logo] wasn’t even really in my head until we talked about the fact that we didn’t have one,” said interim Butler Principal Beth Nolan.
The mascot design process began at the beginning of this school year. Butler PTA volunteer Sophy Lee, the parent of a third-grader, created six preliminary designs. Lee is a graphic designer and has made countless posters and flyers for the PTA.
The PTA brought the idea to Nolan, who shared it with Butler’s educators. From the six designs, the PTA and the Teacher Advisory Council chose two.
“This was an opportunity for students to express their own voice in an appropriate way, and to be involved in our process,” Nolan said. “It gives them a sense of ownership within the school.”
It was PTA Vice President Claire Schuster who suggested coinciding the mascot vote with the town’s municipal election. According to PTA and school leaders, the vote gave educators a chance to teach civics in an age-appropriate and approachable manner. Complete with “I voted” stickers, kids voted for their favorite design.
The final vote was 214-47 — a landslide victory for the second design.
Schuster said she remembered growing up and voting in mock elections in school, approaching the “voting booth” on Super Tuesday with the same enthusiasm as any other voter.
“Having an election that they’re participating in at the same time just kind of builds those things together; parents are voting today, kids are voting today,” she said. “We’re building that life skill together so that we all continue to do that as we participate in our town government.”
While the vote encouraged students to show their Bobcat pride, it also gave them a chance to debate and make an autonomous decision. Savage and Schuster heard their own kids talk about their choices and what conversations looked like in the classroom.
“From what I heard, teachers were able to steer those into really productive conversations about what a choice was and how opinions can be different, and how one isn’t wrong,” Savage said.
Outside the school, leading up to April 7, students pointed to their favorite design and made their case for it.
“They were invested in this idea leading up to the election,” Schuster said.
