All Freeman schools to unite under Scottie mascot

The Freeman Raiders will be no more.

This year, the Freeman School District is unifying its mascots. All of the schools will be Scotties, the high school’s mascot since it opened in 1955.

Until now the elementary and middle schools were the Raiders and the preschoolers were Scottie Puppies.

Superintendent Randy Russell said the district has been talking about the change for about a year now. They wanted to create unity in the district and the community around the one mascot.

“We really had a lot of fun doing this,” Russell said. The committee discussed the update with students, staff and community members to come up with the design.

There’s a new logo of an intertwined F and S, as well as an updated version of the old Scottie dog, which was created in the early 1990s by student Margee Noble.

Freeman’s technology director, Todd Reed, said it made sense to update the logos, since Freeman has new buildings, a new campus and has entered a new era.

“We’ve got to bring our mascot up to par with the district,” Reed said.

So far, the district has been working on changing letterheads, signage and the middle school morning break, which used to be called the Raider Break, but is now called the Scottie Break.

The intertwined F and S (which Russell said stands for both “Freeman Scotties” and “Freeman Schools”) is already being used on uniforms and emails from the district.

“This will be our district identification,” Reed said.

CV staff welcomed back

Staff in the Central Valley School District returned to work with fanfare Tuesday, most notably from the University High School marching band.

Along with the welcome back districtwide, they helped Principal Keven Frandsen welcome new teachers to University by playing the fight song.

“This is not an initiation,” Frandsen joked with the new staff as he brought them on stage.

It was the first time the band participated in the staff event, and it was the band’s first performance of the season.

There are 70 members in the band and 12 in the color guard.

“It’s the biggest we’ve been since I’ve been here,” said band director Mark Tietjen. The drum line showed up at school three weeks before the first day to start learning their show. Band camp was two weeks before school started and included a four-day stay at the Chewelah Peak Learning Center, owned by the Association of Washington School Principals.

“They work hard,” Tietjen said.

This fall, the band will travel to competitions in Yakima, the Tri-Cities and Everett. They also host a noncompetitive marching band show at their own school. The idea behind the show is to give bands starting out a chance to perform and receive critiques from judges to improve their show.

The band’s drum majors are senior Peyton Owen and junior Jordan Willson.

“We’re going to have a really good year,” Willson said.

U-Hi’s marching band will play music from Cirque du Soleil called “Quidim.”

“The music is just really, really beautiful,” Tietjen said.

Car washes

• Central Valley High School bands and color guard will present the 17th annual Human Car Wash today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the school, 821 S. Sullivan Road.

Cars will be rinsed and washed by band students twice before going through a “high-tech drying procedure, built from real elbow grease,” according to the band’s Facebook page.

Tickets are $5 and are available by contacting a band student.

• University High School’s marching band and color guard will hold its car wash today from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the school parking lot, 12420 E. 32nd Ave.

The cost is $5. For more information, visit www.uhighmusic.com.