Go Cougars go green and gold
by Tracy Dudley
DCS Montessori gets mascot and official school colors
Since its inception in 1996, DCS Montessori School has not had an official school mascot or official school colors. During a critical transitional period in 2008, school administration decided it was time for the school to solidify its image and identity.
A key step in this movement was to come up with a school mascot and school colors. Using a Montessori approach, the school staff decided to tie the decision process in to a Positive Behavioral Support (PBS) directive. PBS is an empirically validated, function-based approach to eliminate challenging behaviors and replace them with pro social skills.
“As Montessorians, we really wanted our logo and colors to be meaningful,” said the school’s new principal, Jeromy Johnson.
As part of this process, school administrators began defining positive behavior expectations for students, then translated them into acronyms that spelled out several suitable mascots. Staff within the school voted on these possibilities and narrowed them down to three potential candidates: cougars, rockets, and rock stars.
To coincide with the possible mascots, the school staff came up with several possible color combinations. Since the outside of the school building itself is largely green, that would be the main school color. With that, the DCS Montessori community would have to choose one more color out of gold, white, black, red, or beige.
This August, parents, students, board members, committee members, and alumni voted on their favorite mascot and color combination. The winning combination, by a landslide, was the DCS Montessori green and gold Cougars.
Within the community, the DCS Montessori cougars join the Timber Trail Timber Wolves and the Buffalo Ridge Buffaloes.
For more information about DCS Montessori School, visit www.dcsmontessori.org.
