“Hawk Pride!”
Even before the 2013-2014 year outbreak of school spirit, this phrase was coined in order to help Woodland stand out from other schools in the Naugatuck Valley League.

Back in 2001 when the high school in Beacon Falls was under construction, 780 students throughout the district took part in the vote that decided on the name of the school. The three choices were White Oak, Rock Rimmon, and Woodland.

The determination of the name was quite easy after tallying up the votes. Rock Rimmon was the least popular name and received only 157 votes. The majority of students were not fond of White Oak as a school name either and it received only 165 votes. However Woodland, of course, obtained the most popularity, with 453 votes.

The name of the school was not the only thing that had to be thought about. Another significant decision that had to be made was what the school mascot would be. During construction, the building committee noticed the red tailed hawks flying around and nesting outside of the school. The superintendent at the time, Helene Skrzyniarz, therefore, declared the Hawk as Woodland’s school mascot.

“We leaned more toward animals rather than the Native American names because we did not want to create any controversy,” said, Building committee member, Mike Krensesky.

After the Hawk was decided upon for the mascot, the next task was to choose Woodland’s school colors. The building committee wanted to stand out and have more distinctive colors than the other schools in the Naugatuck Valley League (NVL). They did not want to have similar colors to other high schools such as Ansonia, Derby, or Holy Cross.

Following much deliberation, the decision of our school name, school colors, and mascot were finalized.

“The vision was going to be that we were going to fly and soar like Hawks.” Said Mr. Anderson. No other name would fit who we are. And today, we are… WOODLAND!