OKEMOS, MI - Okemos Public Schools has debuted their new mascot logo on the district’s website banner.

The long-awaited logo reveal took place at the Mar. 14 Board of Education meeting, and the district wasted no time putting it to use. Not only is the district's website updated, but a merchandise store filled with Wolves apparel is already up and running.

Including students into this decision has been a top priority since the project began. Superintendent of Schools, John Hood, says the district wanted students to see ideas they had offered incorporated into the logo.

“We really wanted to make sure that our value of ‘together’ was utilized during this process,” Hood said.

The district's next steps include updating uniforms, athletic fields and old logos that remain in some of the school buildings. Future board meetings will be held to keep the community updated.

After all updates have been made, the total costs are expected to be upwards of $400,000. A $213,000 dollar grant from the Native American Heritage Fund (NAHF), the highest grant awarded by the organization in 2021, was given to the Okemos Public School Board that will help offset the costs of this change. Remaining costs will be taken from the district's sinking fund, bond money, or fund balance.

The new mascot was chosen by both a chosen student committee and a district committee.

The process of choosing the student committee was done very carefully. When picking the committee, the board selected students consisting of all grade levels and diversities. With the help of the district committee, the students took the lead on the project.

Okemos Public School’s district and student mascot change committees announced their final recommendation at the Jan. 24 board meeting. Both the district and student committee unanimously agreed to recommend the Okemos “Wolves” as the new district mascot.

The retired Okemos mascot, The Chiefs, was first questioned back in the 1980s. After a majority of the committee voted to phase out the ‘Chief’ and ‘Chieftains’ nickname, it was recommended that the Board of Education defer judgment. After decades of conversation, in the spring of 2021, there was a unanimous decision to move forward with the change.

More information on the Okemos Mascot change can be found on the Okemos Public schools website linked below.