Members of the Board of Aldermen last month gave an unofficial “way to go” to the city’s Board of Education.
The Aldermen were happy the school board officially designated red and white as the official colors of the Derby middle and high schools.
Earlier this year, the school colors issue caused a minor controversy among the school board and the administrators and students at the new middle school.
School board chairman Kenneth Marcucio, Sr. pushed the issue, saying the two schools should have the same color schemes — red, white and no more than 20 percent black.
That’s the tradition in the city, especially with athletic uniforms, Marcucio had said.
However, middle school principal Sally Bonina urged the school board to allow students to establish their own identity. At a school board meeting in February, middle school administrator Matthew Bradshaw said a poll among middle school students showed they wanted their official colors to be red, white and blue.
In an unscientific poll published by the Valley Indy, 83 percent of readers said they wanted the high school and middle school to have the same color scheme.
The school board voted 5 – 3 March 18 for the red-white scheme.
The vote was music to the ears of Aldermen Joseph DiMartino and Beverly Moran, who praised the school board’s decision at the March 26 Aldermen meeting.
“The colors for the middle school — I’m grateful for leaving them red and white, because that’s what they should be,” Moran said.
“Nice to see that,” said DiMartino, who also coaches at the high school.
“Keeps consistency,” Mayor Anthony Staffieri said.
Moran also pointed out that the middle school colors were once blue and white — when the athletic teams in the middle school were called “the Middies.”
