New School to Select Colors and Mascot

It’s bad enough that virtually no one remembers the name Santa Susana--Simi Valley’s new performing arts and technology magnet high school that replaced Sequoia Junior High.

What’s worse is that the nearly 2-month-old school is still without a collective identity--a mascot to rally around and school colors to wear with pride.

But students, teachers, parents and administrators are working on that. Making the selection of colors and a mascot as democratic as possible, the Santa Susana community was invited to suggest in words and pictures how best to represent its new school. The community responded in full force.

Initial ideas for Santa Susana’s moniker included new-age suggestions such as the Stargazers, the Sparks and the Stars. About 20 suggestions were of the more traditional mammalian and avian variety--the Badgers, Wolves, Eagles and Owls. Other students recommended symbolic names--Trailblazers or Explorers because the school is charting new territory, or the Quakes because . . . well . . . you know.

Color combos ran the gamut as well. Students suggested rainbow stripes, a blue, silver and green trio and a yellow and turquoise pair, to name a few.

Almost all the suggestions involved cool colors, Principal Pat Hauser said, perhaps because the newly installed floors--damaged by the Northridge temblor--are a shade of teal.

At a meeting Monday, a steering committee winnowed down the initial offerings to four possible mascots and six possible color combinations. The contenders are being kept under wraps until mock-up displays are created of all possibilities.

There was really only one restriction on the selection process, Hauser said.

“My job in all of this is to make sure that the selection is not so off the wall that it’s not going to last a long time,” she said. “For instance, I’ve told them they can’t have hot pink and neon yellow together.”

All Santa Susana students, teachers and staff members will be permitted to vote on the possibilities, probably in the week before Thanksgiving.