Students Vote on New High School’s Name

Southfield+High+School+could+get+a+new+name%2C+mascot%2C+and+school+colors+as+soon+at+January+12.+

Rachel Walker

Southfield High School could get a new name, mascot, and school colors as soon at January 12.

Southfield’s new high school name, mascot and colors will be put to a student vote scheduled for Jan. 7, according to Derrick Lopez, associate superintendent.

The students will have four options for the name and mascot and three options for the colors, all suggested by a panel of students from both Southfield High School and Southfield-Lathrup High School – the two schools that will merge in September.

Lopez said he personally will monitor the counting of the votes and present the top two student choices in each category to the Board of Education at their January 12 meeting, and the Board of Education will get the final say on the new school’s identity.

The graduating Class of 2016  is the only group of students that will not be allowed to partake in the voting, Lopez said. Teachers and administrators also will not be included in the process, he said.

Prior to the vote, both high schools are asked to display the school names, along with the color choices and the mascot choices during the week of January 4-8 so that students can see them.

The four name choices are as follows:

  • Southfield Central High School
  • Southfield School of Arts and Technology
  • United Southfield High School
  • Southfield United High School

Some alumni from both high schools who attended a meeting about the name change with Lopez said the name “Southfield Central” sounds too much like Pontiac Central, Walled Lake Central and Central High School in Detroit. But it was the most popular choice among the 42 students on the ambassador panel, getting 34 votes.

Committee member Asia Bates, of Southfield High School, said she would rather the students count the ballots so they could be sure their top two choices were the ones that the board received, but Lopez assured them her he would oversee the vote count with integrity and their top two choices would be forwarded to the Board.

The four mascot choices are:

  • The Warriors
  • The Bulls
  • The Patriots
  • The Blue Chargers (Pegasus)

The three color choices are:

  • Red, white and blue
  • Purple, grey, black and white
  • Gold, black and grey.

At present. Southfield High’s mascot is the Blue Jay, and its school colors are blue and grey.