OKEECHOBEE — At the meeting of the Okeechobee County School Board on Tuesday, Dec. 9, much discussion was once again had about the new logo for Okeechobee County Schools.

The board is currently working with Rhodes Branding on establishing a new logo for the purpose of re-branding, as many of the school districts in the state have done. At last month’s meeting the board tabled the discussion for the time being as they had yet come to an agreement on which of the new logos Rhodes Branding has presented to them to use for Okeechobee Schools.

Board Chair Jill Holcomb did some research by reaching out to the other districts to find out exactly how they went about choosing their new logos and how they ultimately came to a final decision. “After our last meeting, when we were discussing the logo and discussing the branding, I had a few sleepless nights and I was a little frustrated,” she said. “I couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t move forward. Why we couldn’t agree on a logo.”

Holcomb thinks that perhaps the reason they can’t come to an agreement is because they haven’t “stayed in their lane”. When she asked some of the other school boards how they voted on their logos the response she received was that they didn’t. They instead passed the reigns of making the final decision on a logo, on to their administration. In other words, Holcomb was saying that perhaps it shouldn’t be up to the board to choose the final logo for Okeechobee County Schools.

Board Member Malissa Morgan wasn’t in favor of passing the vote onto administration. “I feel as though it’s a cop-out, We’re just gonna go ‘We can’t figure this out so we’re just going to hand it over to staff and let them be responsible.’” Morgan said. “We as a board are unique. We have always been involved in our vision, our mission, our strategic plan. Ideally with this process, the rebranding, we started it with the intention of working with our staff, being an integral part of this and now we’re just going to say ‘You know what, it’s too hard, we can’t make a decision. Here ya go, take it.’ That’s not what we’re elected to do and that’s how I feel.” She stated that handing it off at this point in the process would be making a u-turn.

Holcomb replied, “It’s not that it’s too hard, it’s that I don’t think we’re ever going to have a logo that five people vote on and that we aren’t supposed to vote on.” She pointed out that there is no policy that states that the board is responsible for choosing things like logos.

Vice Chair Christine Bishop seemed to understand where Morgan was coming from and understood why she saw it as making a u-turn and backtracking but also stated that she felt that perhaps they had somewhat undermined staff by taking the lead on the final decision of the logo since the staff are the ones that do the day-to-day.

Superintendent Dylan Tedders appeared to feel somewhat to blame for the confusion of whom the responsibility of choosing the logo fell on. “In my quest for 100% transparency, I have crossed the line and I’ve put you guys in a situation where now, lines are blurred because I put this on as an item,” he said.

Malissa Morgan went on to say that even though it’s difficult to pass off the responsibility at this point, she does trust the administration staff with the decision. “I don’t like making a course correction when we’re this far along,” she said. “Because it does feel like we’re giving up in a way, but I do believe in our staff.”

A motion was made to give authority over the logo to administration staff going forward, was voted on and approved.