MILTON, Ga.,None — Some north Fulton County parents already upset about the process used to name the county's newest high school, now they have concerns about the process to choose its colors and mascot.
The new high school, located at the corner of Bethany Bend and Cogburn roads in Milton, will open in August 2012. Per school board policy, the school's new principal appointed a naming committee of parents, students and community members, who whittled down a list of nearly 30 names to just two for consideration -- Providence High School and Cambridge High School, which school officials said paid homage to the community's history.
Some Milton school parents are protesting the process, and argue there should have been a public vote.
"Why go through a process which seems to exclude so many and just include a little group of people making this name," said Micah Thomas, who has four children in the school system.
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This week, those parents told Channel 2's Mike Petchenik they received an email informing them that all students who would be attending the school could vote to choose school colors and mascot.
"It seemed at first like there was going to be a vote," said Thomas.
But then, those parents told Petchenik, they received another email informing them the school would form another committee to choose the name.
"I can't help have a feeling of a flip flop a little bit," said parent Kelly Brown.
School principal Ed Spurka told Petchenik the plan was always for him to form a committee of nearly 50 children, and to have them narrow down the list for all students to vote on at a later date.
"There is so much interest in our students coming out to the new school that I want students to have an opportunity," Spurka told Petchenik.
Spurka told Petchenik he had hoped to choose the mascot and colors after a school board vote on the name next month, but he said contractors informed him they needed the color scheme picked out sooner.
Students will have a chance to choose the mascot and color scheme on Wednesday, Nov. 2 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Northwestern Middle School, or at the same time Nov. 3 at Hopewell Middle School.
Brown told Petchenik she wished everyone would just be on the same page about the process.
"We are on the same team and I want my community to remember that and not be so divided and have anger to one another that I'm sensing," she said.
WSBTV
