Who wants to be a ‘Millionaire’? Berkshires town keeps its divisive mascot following vote

Lenox will keep its controversial “Millionaires” mascot after students and families came out divided on whether to buck the ritzy moniker or embrace their Berkshires town’s Gilded Age tradition.

A recent poll of Lenox students, families, and staff found no “clear or decisive consensus” on the mascot, Superintendent William Collins explained in a letter to the school community this week. 

“The data shows that while a large number of participants expressed support for a mascot name change, a substantial portion of our community prefers to maintain the current mascot, while others remain neutral,” Collins wrote.

Survey results indicated about 45% of students and 55% of school families favored a change, compared to a respective 34% and 37% who wanted to keep the status quo. 

“For a decision of this magnitude, one that touches on tradition, identity, and community pride, I believe a much stronger and more unified mandate is necessary before recommending a change,” Collins said, adding that he will instead suggest the Lenox School Committee table the matter. 

This is the third time the “Millionaires” name has been on the chopping block since 2017, when Lenox students initially voiced support for retiring the mascot before reversing course in another vote the following year. The latest poll surveyed only the school community, though School Committee Chair Oren Cass previously acknowledged the mascot’s significance to the town at large. 

“It is obviously an issue of particular salience to the schools, but ultimately it is a question for the town of what we have representing us,” Cass said during the committee’s April 13 meeting.

Community members who weighed in spoke overwhelmingly in favor of staying with the “Millionaires,” a name that pays homage to wealthy out-of-towners who built sprawling summer estates in Lenox and bolstered the local economy during the Gilded Age.

“I think we have to honor that,” Lenox resident Mary Jo Piretti-Miller said during the School Committee meeting. “I think we have to keep that. I think history is very important, especially when it comes to teaching kids.”

But the “Millionaires” name is not without controversy; Lenox students have long complained that a mascot reminiscent of Mr. Monopoly provokes taunts from rival sports teams and doesn’t accurately reflect the community’s economics. 

The way Piretti-Miller sees it, the name-based teasing presents a learning opportunity — both for other schools, and for Lenox “to teach our own kids if they’re bullied about the ‘Millionaires,’ that, you know, life’s not perfect, and you’re just going to have to grow a thick skin if some jerk is going to call you a name because you’re the ‘Millionaires.’”

In his letter to the school community, Collins said he approached the name debate “from the belief that long standing traditions are worth preserving unless there is a compelling, broadly shared reason to move away from them.”

While the idea of “something new” may seem appealing in the abstract, any contender for a potential replacement would likely be yet another source of contention, he argued. 

Wherever Lenox ultimately falls on the school mascot debate, “There’s one thing that I think is absolutely true that really brings us all together,” School Committee member Richard Burke said last month. “And that is, I have no doubt that the value of an education at the Lenox Public Schools is worth more than a million dollars.”

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Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.