MARQUETTE — The Marquette Area Public Schools Board of Education again will address the controversial Redmen/Redette nicknames for Marquette Senior High School at its next meeting on July 17.

The meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. in Kaufman Auditorium.

In 2019, the MSHS Nickname Research Committee recommended that MAPS discontinue the long-standing nicknames after exploring whether they created an adverse learning environment for students and if they were culturally insensitive.

Committee Chairman Joe Lubig had pointed out at the time that many other organizations had adopted policies that disallow use of Native American symbols and nicknames by non-native teams because of the misunderstanding and reinforcement of stereotypes that the symbols and imagery promote.

The MAPS board that was in office in 2020 voted to retire the Native American chief logo and formally adopted the block letter M as the logo.

However, the nicknames stayed in place.

The community was — and is — divided over the issue, with many people wanting to change the nicknames and others wanting them to stay.

At the board’s regular meeting on Monday, board Vice President Glenn Sarka made the motion to put the committee’s recommendations from 2019 on the July 17 agenda.

Voting for the motion were Sarka, board president Kristen Cambensy, and trustees Cheryl Maddox-Smith, Jennifer Klipp and Jennifer Ray. Voting against the motion were Secretary-Treasurer James Hewitt and Trustee Jason Zdunek.

“It is tremendously disappointing to hear another motion by Mr. Sarka to once again re-engage in what amounts to be a very community-divisive issue,” Zdunek said.

He noted that the nickname issue had been debated, ultimately culminating in a survey that was sent to the community at a cost of “thousands” of taxpayer and school district dollars.

“The community spoke as a result of that survey,” Zdunek said. “Over 65 percent of the community is supportive of our school name.”

He also said that the motion to bring up the issue at the July 17 meeting will “overshadow the great work” of MAPS staff.

Maddox-Smith said she looks forward to the July 17 meeting and hearing what people have to say about the issue.

“I hope the next meeting is good, informational and we’re all nice to each other,” she said.