Here come the Fightin' Hucks!

In what many would say has been a longtime coming, the three established school districts in the Silver Valley have decided to join forces and consolidate — ushering in a new unified identity for the community as a whole.

Following the completion of a consolidation study, conducted by consulting firm RMW Northwest, leadership of the Kellogg, Wallace and Mullan school districts saw that consolidation would not only save taxpayers thousands of dollars, but the quality of education and local sports would vastly improve as well.

“After running through the numbers with my fellow administrators, it really makes the most sense across the board to pull our resources and work together,” Kellogg School District Superintendent Pance Learson said in an interview with the News-Press.

“I agree!” Wallace School District Superintendent Hodd Toward added, “this move will save quite a bit of money and will allow us to be more competitive with teachers' wages compared to other districts.”

Talks of conducting a new consolidation study began in mid-2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced school districts across the country to consider options that they might normally disregard. Once it was discovered that the last study had not been conducted since early 1992, administrators agreed that it was time to give the option another look — albeit quietly.

The study itself, clocking in at a total cost of $30,000, was completely paid for by the state of Idaho, per Idaho Code 33-310B, and did not cost the districts anything. This code allows the state to provide $10,000 per involved district to “study the feasibility of district consolidation.”

“Cost has always been a huge prohibitive factor when this topic has come up in the past,” Mullan School District Superintendent Wes Lells said.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the new Silver Valley School District will be the creation of the school’s new mascot — The Fighting Huckleberries.

Conceived through a multi-step review process, consisting of art and athletic representatives from all three former districts, ‘The Hucks’ was chosen to represent the area’s natural beauty and recognize the budding outdoor-centric tourism industry. The mascot itself, appropriately named ‘Huck,’ shows off a menacing look while sporting colors and elements that call back to the Kellogg Wildcats, Wallace Miners and Mullan Tigers.

“I love it!” MHS alum Juli Zook said of the mascot. “I think the Silver Valley as a whole will be really excited to embrace the Hucks and rally around it!”

The process of consolidation will begin effective immediately, with an expected implementation at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year.

While the use of the newly formed district’s facilities will take several years to fully analyze, the only building changes that are expected in 2022-2023 will affect secondary education students. For now, all elementary age students will remain at their current buildings while grades 9-12 will attend Silver Valley High School in Kellogg and grades 6-8 will attend Silver Valley Middle School in Wallace.

Even SVH resource officer Adam Durflinger will be getting into the Fightin’ Hucks spirit. Starting next year, he will be issued a special purple uniform to show the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office’s support for the change.

From an educational standpoint, the thought of bigger schools just makes sense according to the study. More teachers, more students, more opportunities — and an excellent way to cut costs.

One of the primary benefits of school consolidation is that the school board can provide more and more enriched-curricular offerings to students by combining resources.

But more exciting than the educational benefits is what combining the schools can do for drama, art and choir.

Retired KHS drama, speech and english teacher Paul Roberts will be coming back as principal for the newly named Silver Valley Middle School located in Wallace.

“I’m so excited for the artistic possibilities that can be obtained from combining the three districts. Think of what we can do with the drama program. I can put on a production of CATS! Just what the Silver Valley has always needed.”

Roberts is planning to also play a role in the play.

“It really gives me a chance to show off my theatrical skills on a stage bigger than the Sixth Street Melodrama. I have already begun rehearsing my lines for the role of Old Deuteronomy.”

By combining the districts, students will be able to have a wider variety of class choices, choices in clubs and extracurricular activities will also be magnified.

New classes and clubs that are on the agenda to be added are break-dance fighting, ladders, bleu cheese club, cosplay club and camouflage class.

KHS alum and JV basketball coach Josh McDonald is also looking forward to the Johnny Cash sing-along hour being incorporated into the pep band.

“I can’t wait to hear it at every basketball game!”

Not only putting emphasis on the arts, combining the schools can also enhance all STEAM components within the curriculum. STEAM is an educational approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics as access points that guide students to ask questions, dialogue and critical thinking. Plans for the 2023-2024 curriculum include building robots, and having them fight against each other in a battle royale, as well as an in-depth look at the experiment that killed famed elephant Topsy.

Students will also be able to gain a deeper understanding of the differences between the Silver Valley towns as they will all attend school together.

“I think this will unite our students. Those living in Kellogg will no longer feel as though they are different than those in Wallace or Mullan. We might be able to obtain peace, instead of the decade-long rivalry that has plagued our valley,” said a prominent local educator who asked to be anonymous for fear of retribution.

The consolidation will have far-reaching effects outside from just the overall improvement of education and unifying school levies — high school sports in the area will likely see an uptick as well.

Despite petitioning down to the 2A classification, with the consolidation, the Fightin’ Hucks will now be among the bigger 3A schools in the state and if the recent nominations to the North Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame show us anything, it’s that SVHS will have a bevy of strong athletes at their disposal for several deep runs and likely postseason success.

Mullan School District athletic director and head football coach Stetson Spooner looks at the talent in just football — especially this last year — and believes that state hardware would’ve been and will be achievable with bringing so many talented athletes together.

“You look at what they’ve been doing in Kellogg, stringing together several playoff appearances, we’ve been doing the same up here and really seem to be moving in the right direction each year. I think Wallace has done a good job rebuilding after a few down years too,” Spooner said. “However, when you start thinking about combining these teams, you get a quality JV program that will feed a strong varsity and I don’t want to sound like LeBron here, but I’m not thinking about just one or two championships… Not three, not four, not five… We’re going to be really good I think.”

It seems like every year one of the schools puts together a team that really has potential to make noise at the state level, but outside from Kellogg’s rock solid golf program, no one has been able to bring home one of those beautiful blue championship trophies.

“We are consistently producing a handful of college athletes throughout the Valley each year,” Spooner said. “Can you imagine what it will look like when they are all able to play together?”

Kellogg’s assistant golf coach and local treasure Danny Kenyon was over the moon about the consolidation because he believes that it will give so many student-athletes opportunities that had only previously happened for Kellogg golfers.

“Everyone deserves to know what it feels like to play for championships,” Kenyon said. “I’m so excited for all of these kids.”

It seems that most in the community are in favor of the change, as a recent News-Press poll shows that 98% of Shoshone County residents “strongly approve” of consolidation and the new mascot.

Not everyone has been pleased with the decision though.

“How could they get rid of my beloved Wildcats!?” 1965 KHS alum JoAn Geryman posted in Silver Valley Rants and Raves. “I don’t think I’ll ever financially recover from this.”

“I never thought I’d see the day where I agree with a filthy wildcat, but Geryman makes a great point!” 1978 WHS alum Bob Boisterous declared to random pedestrians at the corner of Sixth and Bank Street in Wallace. “I have a tattoo of Marty the Miner on my arm! Now it just looks dumb!”

A resident of Mullan, Mont., could not be found for comment.