Sheridan about to get a new name as North Central, Garry prepare for school mascot changes

After more than a year of hard work, Larry Quisano and the East Central community are almost at the finish line.

In days, Spokane will no longer have a school named for Philip Sheridan, the controversial 19th century general.

On Wednesday night, the Spokane Public Schools board will discuss the three finalists for the new name: East Central, Unity and Frances Scott.

A final decision is expected on June 30. On that same night, the board is expected to choose new mascots for North Central High School and Garry Middle School.

However, the big news will be the renaming of Sheridan. Quisano, the principal, certainly has a favorite. For years, he’s referred to his school as “Sheridan Elementary School in the East Central Neighborhood.”

But, following a process that dates back to last year, Quisano said he’ll be OK with any of the three suggestions.

“I look forward to the day when all of our kids, particularly our Native American students, can walk in these halls and truly feel part of this community,” Quisano said.

That will happen on Sept. 2, the first day of the new school year. By then, the Sheridan name will be erased from the entryway, the front hall, the gymnasium floor and other areas.

“The name is almost everywhere,” Quisano said. “There will be a lot of work.”

That figures to be the easy part for Quisano, who worked with students, community members and the district to erase the name of Sheridan, a Civil War hero who went on to wage a cruel war against Native Americans on the Great Plains.

“It’s such a good feeling,” Quisano said. “We’ve had some honest and difficult conversations with members of the community, but they got their say too, and it’s been a good process.”

The three finalists were chosen by a district screening committee following input from the school and the community.

Scott was Spokane’s first African American female attorney, a teacher at Rogers High School for more than 30 years, president of the Spokane Education Association and a president of the Washington State University Board of Regents.

When she began teaching English and German at Rogers in 1958, she was one of four Black teachers in SPS. She went on to practice law on the side, taking mostly civil rights and pro bono cases, all while still teaching at Rogers.

The East Central name stems from the surrounding neighborhood, one of the first areas to be developed outside the downtown area because of its flat land.

The area was referred to as the Park Neighborhood, and the earliest plats were Union Park and Liberty Park. East Central has more than 600 historic homes.

The third finalist, Unity, was selected by a screening committee representative. The idea is that the word shows the connection be tween students and faculty, and would allow everyone to feel welcome no matter who they are.

On Tuesday, Quisano reeled them off and said he liked the sound of all three. “ ‘Frances Scott Elementary in the East Central Neighborhood,’ that would be good too,” Quisano said.

At North Central, students held a final vote last weekend between the two finalists, “Riverhawks” and “Wolfpack.” However, the district did not reveal the outcome of the vote.

The school went through a process that lasted several weeks, Principal Steve Fisk said.

Other names receiving consideration were Dragons, Cardinals, Grizzly Bears, Coyotes and Redband Trout.

Also in the mix was the marmot.

“That got quite a few votes,” Fisk said. “But we also had a lot of people who said they were voting for ‘anything but marmot.’”