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‘‘I’m happy that we got a new logo, but I wasn’t happy with the one they picked,” said junior Matt Evans. ‘‘I just thought it wasn’t really original.”

The school’s old logo was nearly identical to the stylized head adorning the helmets of the National Football League’s New England Patriots, earning it the nickname ‘‘Flying Elvis” because of its sideburns and curled hat. New England began using the logo in 1993 and Wootton started using it some time after that.

But before the launch of the school’s online store in late fall of 2005, Principal Michael Doran decided Wootton needed to trade in its logo for something original.

‘‘I really didn’t want to have the school associated with the football team,” Doran said. ‘‘We didn’t have our own separate identity.”

Because school merchandise was going to be sold online, Wootton wanted to avoid potential legal action from the NFL. It would be easy for someone to see that Wootton was using a logo that was exactly the same except sometimes it faced the opposite direction or the number of stars on it varied, Doran said.

So the school launched a logo design contest for students. And although it received hundreds of submissions, the best ones were complex like pictures, rather than a logo, and were too masculine for a school that also has females in attendance.

‘‘Maybe I went in a little naively about changing something,” said Doran, who didn’t realize the process would be so complicated.

The school had to take another route, so it used the help of a graphic designer. He sent out questionnaires to students and teachers to get a sense of what the school stood for. Then he designed 10 images for teachers and students to vote on. More than 300 students voted.

‘‘It’s been such a long-haul,” Doran said. ‘‘It’s been a fun process. I’m just glad it’s over and we can own the new logo.”

The new logo started appearing around the school on new merchandise near the beginning of December and will gradually take the place of the old design.

As it’s time to buy new uniforms for the different sports teams and as other items run out, the school will purchase ones with the new Wootton patriot logo, Doran said.

However, students have mixed opinions about the winning design. Some think that it isn’t aggressive enough, doesn’t represent the school or that it resembles the Ralph Lauren Polo logo.

‘‘It doesn’t show school spirit,” said sophomore Alex Cederbaum.

Not everyone likes it but it was the logo that most people ranked first or somewhere in the middle when they voted, said Doran, who added, it’s something that everyone can live with.

‘‘I like that we designed our own so it’s not a generic one that so many other schools have,” Evans said.