None of the Above (Updated to include New Information from the Administration)

Here's one of the Reddit offerings suggested as a Pottsgrove School Distirict logo as an alternative to the ones created by a company hired by the school district.

(BLOGGER'S NOTE: AFTER READING THIS STERLING POST, PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR AN UPDATE ON THE FUTURE OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT LOGO DECISION:)

Reaction to the three new logos being offered for residents of the Pottsgrove School District has been lukewarm, if comments on the Web and a recent school board meeting are any indication.

Here is one of the district's offerings

After The Digital Notebook published a post Saturday highlighting the district's request for residents to vote among three choices; and then posted links to that post on the Facebook pages of both sets of school board candidates, there was little positive reaction.

the posts were created by a Jenkintown-based public relations and marketing research company, The Communications Solutions Group, with the district hired in February to help with marketing and "re-branding" the district.

This spring, a number of focus group sessions with parents, residents and staff were held and input helped to create the three options posted here on which residents were asked to vote.

The voting ended Tuesday.

Another of the Reddit offerings.

But some, including Greg Barry, expressed disappoint that one of the choices was not "none of the above."

"I wish one of the options was a request to begin again because I am not a fan of any of the logos," wrote Marisa Cerato on the incumbent Moving Pottsgrove Forward team's Facebook page.

"The feathers on the first falcon look too sharp. The 2nd falcon is going backwards (with the same sharp feathers). And, I don't like the expression "Where opportunities take flight." on the 3rd one. I like "Soaring to Excellence" much better," she wrote.

The second district offering

"Pottsgrove needs to 'Re-brand.' Well then lets allow the students to get involved" Al Leach wrote. What would build more school spirit and a sense of pride for our students then creating the new logo and building the website?"

There were even more comments on the Pottsgrove Residents for a New School Board Facebook site -- 42 as of Wednesday evening -- although many were from the same people.

"With all the people I've talked to, I haven't heard support for any of these. There should be enthusiasm if any rebranding effort is going to work," wrote Don Clancy, who won a Democratic line on the November ballot for school board in last week's primary election.

The third district offering

In addition to suggesting using student artists as well, he also suggested asking artists on Reddit to offer options.

"The Reddits will never get approval because they already wasted thousands of dollars on those other ones," wrote Fred Sparrows.

There was some discussion on these Facebook pages about creating a contest among the school community and the Reddit community.

Along those lines, Leach said he created a logo, shown at right, in "about 10 minutes."

A logo created by resident Al Leach.

Some thought the contest should be opened to parents and teachers, while others thought the students should be given the first shot.

Leach even suggested that a scholarship be offered as a prize for creating the logo that gets chosen.

When the discussion made its way to Tuesday's school board meeting, Clancy told the board "I've seen a lot of negative feedback on the logos."

When he was finished, School Board President Scott Fulmer suggested that Clancy, who will be among the challengers Fulmer's slate will face in the November election, "sit down. Because Mr. Clancy, I agree with you. I wouldn't be happy with any of those logos either."

Noting that one had blue type, Fulmer said "you know me, I bleed maroon and white. Anything that doesn't have those colors, I'm not interested."

"I think that's a good idea to involve the students," Fulmer added.

Although no vote was taken, it seems the idea of a new logo for Pottsgrove may be in for a second consideration.

UPDATE!

Well it seems the price we'll pay for trying to cover the Pottsgrove School District is that weekends are no longer non-working days. (Sigh)

Having written this post Wednesday and held it for Sunday, we find there has been a development which alters the conclusion of this post.

On Saturday, Pottsgrove School Board candidate Don Clancy posted on the "Pottsgrove Residents for a New School Board" Facebook site that "Shellie wrote me a nice letter yesterday, informing me that there will be no crowd sourcing for this logo. 900 people logged into Evan's site and voted, one is a clear winner and there will be some variations on that one posted for further review."

First, let's make a correction. 

No voting occurred at the Digital Notebook site. Despite the formidable computing capabilities of our vast underground headquarters, we could not hope to grapple with such an influx of data.

Rather, the post which Mr. Clancy kindly mentions was merely a repeating of the information sent out by the district in an e-mail and a link to the site were voting did occur. So while we thank Mr. Clancy for his concern over our challenged  computer servers, the concern is unwarranted. 

That correction in mind, here is a slightly edited remainder of what Mr. Clancy posted:

I think I pointed possibly more than 100,000 people from Reddit into Evan's site. Sure, perhaps less than 1% might have actually clicked on Evan's site and voted, but there's no certainty those votes came from Pottsgrove, unless Evan Brandt can verify the IP locations of the voters. There was also no "none of the above" choice. How many would have chosen that? Oh well, I can't win them all. Please I know this is going to make people upset, but remember we can only debate ideas, concepts, and policy.

So given what was written above, no I cannot verify IP locations since no one actually voted on my blog site and, more importantly, I can barely verify what I had for lunch on a given day, much less an IP address.

So it appears from Mr. Clancy's post, that the dissatisfaction with the three logos on which votes were taken, a dissatisfaction that publicly included School Board President Scott Fulmer, will not win the day.

Pottsgrove artists, put down your pens, brushes and, more likely, computer mice.