Centralia Middle School is getting an orange and black makeover after the school’s Associated Student Body (ASB) voted to officially change the school’s mascot from the Yellow Jackets to …
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Centralia Middle School is getting an orange and black makeover after the school’s Associated Student Body (ASB) voted to officially change the school’s mascot from the Yellow Jackets to the Tigers.
“When it was blue, it was so much darker, and now, with the orange, it brightens things up,” Centralia Middle School Principal Lara Gregorich-Bennett said during a walk-through of the school with The Chronicle on Wednesday. “It’s a definite change. Symbolic.”
Students, teachers and community members volunteered their precious winter break hours in December and early January to start repainting the Yellow Jackets blue and gold with the new orange and black school colors.
“We kept saying we would only do four-hour blocks, but we wound up (painting for) I think eight hours,” Gregorich-Bennett said.
Centralia Middle School leadership students, supported by Gregorich-Bennett, began pitching the mascot change to the Centralia community during the 2023-24 school year, with the school’s ASB formally voting to make the change on the last day of the academic year.
“I definitely felt like we were a big part of it, like we helped a lot. It made me feel accomplished that we helped with the change,” said eighth-grade leadership student Antonia Saucedo.
Eighth grade leadership student Lydia Lowe said teachers, students and other volunteers came together to complete the start of the rebranding process.
“It was really nice that people came together just because we wanted our school to change,” Lowe said.
The makeover is far from complete, but Centralia Middle School students returning from winter break last week got their first glimpse of their Tiger future.
“One thing cool to see is Centralia just becoming orange and black,” Centralia Middle School leadership teacher Ana Summers said. “Following along with that brand and feeling that we’re actually a part of the family is important, too.”
“We didn’t want to make this change unless the community supported it,” Gregorich-Bennett added.
The mascot and color change is part of a student-led effort to unify the Centralia School District under one Tiger brand. The effort included trips to the Centralia City Council and Centralia School board last year, where students made their case for the change directly to municipal and school district leaders.
Their presentation included results from a survey they conducted. They received 600 responses. An overwhelming 84.5% of those who took the survey supported changing the colors from blue and yellow to black and orange. As for the mascot, only 15.3% of those who took the survey wanted to remain the Yellow Jackets, while 18.3% wanted it to be changed to the Bengals and 66.3% wanted the mascot to be the Tigers.
The students also noted the branding for the growing Centralia Youth Sports program, which uses the tigers mascot and black and orange colors.
“Leadership has really stepped up, as well as our entire student body,” Summers said, adding that students have been taking the initiative to help create new traditions and modify old Yellow Jacket traditions “and making it work for the Tigers perspective.”
Up until the end of the 2023-24 school year, Centralia Middle School was one of two schools within the eight-school Centralia School District to have its own distinct mascot.
The other, Edison Elementary School, is still holding onto its red and blue Bulldogs for the time being.
“The middle school years are some of the toughest parts going through the education system, so feeling like you’re disconnected from the community is already an added difficulty, let alone from the high school,” Summers said.
Centralia Middle School students, aside from those who attended Edison Elementary School, had the awkward experience of growing up as Tigers in elementary school only to switch to the Yellow Jackets for two years before becoming Tigers again in high school.
“When you’re an eighth-grader … they’re wanting to identify with that high school. They were more reluctant to wear that blue and gold, because they’re like, ‘I’m ready for high school,” Summers said.
Aside from the initial costs associated with repainting the school and replacing uniforms, the mascot change will be financially sound for the district and students’ families in the long run, as items such as sports uniforms, merchandise and even paint can be shared between Centralia Middle School and Centralia High School.
Though Centralia Middle School is enthusiastically welcoming a new mascot and color scheme, officials are taking care to preserve the school’s Yellow Jackets history.
As the remodel continues, the school’s library hallway will be turned into a commemorative showcase of the school’s history, with Yellow Jackets posters and other memorabilia left on display.
“We don’t want to erase any of the history, all this type of stuff,” Summers said. “ … That was a concern that a lot of the community had shared at some point in time, because we don’t want to erase who we are, we just want to adapt it and change it to what needs to happen right now.”
The aesthetic change from Yellow Jackets to Tigers will happen gradually throughout the next year or so, as the district is relying on volunteer efforts and community aid to support ongoing renovations.
“The lockers are going to be a big thing, and the weight room and our gym is a big thing, so those are major projects that we probably couldn’t do with volunteers,” Gregorich-Bennett said. “We’re hoping the community might be willing to donate money to contribute to some of the larger projects.”
The district has funding set aside in its strategic plan for some of the larger projects, such as repainting the school’s exterior doors, but some projects can’t be completed without support from the community.
“The community was very vocal in supporting this change and supporting our student voice in this and (being) really excited about it, and we had lots of people saying, ‘We want to support that.’ This is your opportunity to step up and support it financially,” Gregorich-Bennett said.
“We have that opportunity to step up and support our kids and help support this, and just get that ‘one Centralia’ idea: ‘We’re all coming together, and we all believe in this,” she said.
Centralia Middle School also encouraged businesses willing to sponsor an aspect of the remodel, or those with graphic design skills interested in making graphics to be incorporated in new decorations, to reach out.
For information on how to donate and upcoming volunteer opportunities, visit https://www.facebook.com/centraliamiddleschool.