Critics bashed a Long Island school’s secret “backroom deal” with state officials to rebrand its sports team to comply with a controversial Native American logo ban — saying the community should keep fighting.

Connetquot has been quietly negotiating to shorten its Thunderbirds team name to T-Birds, a name that New York previously said was included in its logo ban, according to documents obtained by The Post.

One vocal school board member said the deal showed the state was willing to break its own rules — and school leaders were willing to cut the public out of the process.

“You don’t even tell the community that this agreement exists, and you’re just going to make a decision and represent them?” Connetquot board member Jacquelyn DiLorenzo fumed to The Post, blasting her colleagues as “very corrupt.”

Connetquot had sued New York to keep its Thunderbirds team name after the Board of Regents enacted the ban on Native American-themed logos and sports team names in 2023.

But while the school was supposedly digging in on the fight against the rebrand it claimed would cost $23 million it quietly was beginning negotiations with the state for a compromise.

The Suffolk district and the state have been negotiating to adopt the long-used abbreviation T-Birds — even though the Empire State had previously said the shortened name was also banned.

“We have confirmed that [State Education Department] considers…’Thunderbirds’ or ‘T-Birds’ to both be impermissible,”‘ New York assistant attorney general Helena Lynch wrote to Connetquot’s legal team on May 30.

It was also the same day federal Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced at nearby Massapequa High School, home of the Chiefs, that bans targeting just one ethnic group were a civil rights violation.

Soon after, the district’s legal counsel wrote in an email officials “negotiated an agreement with the state to allow the T-Birds name” on the condition it wasn’t connected to any Native American imagery.

Connetquot’s mascot is a soaring bird made of red, black, white and gold.

“I am confident we can make this work. The State seems motivated to resolve it and I do not think they will be looking to prove a connection,” the attorney added.

A proposed settlement stated that T-Birds suddenly became “permissible” by New York on June 18.

The state Department of Education and Connetquot schools haven’t responded to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, the argument in Connetquot’s initial lawsuit to keep Thunderbirds had labeled the two monikers as being directly correlated.

“Over the years, the ‘Thunderbirds’ name also morphed into the popular nickname: ‘T-Birds,’” the district’s lawyers wrote in 2024 court papers.

DiLorenzo unloaded on the state government for its flip flop on the use of “T-Birds” saying it made “no sense” that the phrase was considered discriminatory two years ago but had suddenly become acceptable.

A a recent meeting she also cited multiple surveys showing 60% of the community wanted to continue the legal battle for Thunderbirds — and said other board members were acting “to serve personal and self-interested agendas.”

The state ban can result in the dismissal of board members at non-compliant schools.

“I definitely think that they are being intimidated,” DiLorenzo said of her colleagues.

McMahon launched an investigation into Connetquot over removing Thunderbirds in July, and recently doubled down on the stance.

She said “it is a top priority” of the Trump administration to keep the name and that of other teams, such as the Chiefs, in a statement to The Post last week.

The pro-Trump Native American Guardians Association sent a letter to Connetquot on Monday, writing that removing the “far from being derogatory” logo “would also commit the district to false and discriminatory representations about Native American culture.”

NAGA and Massapequa attorney Oliver Roberts told The Post that the quiet dealings prove “that this was never really about protecting Native Americans.”

“It was about compelling compliance with a cancel-culture agenda that even Native Americans oppose themselves,” Roberts said.

Emails from Connetquot’s Board President, Marissol Mallon, show efforts to keep mascot talks extremely internal since mid-April.

“I am told that we can decide through this email thread what option we want to pursue,” she wrote to the board.

Mallon added that electronic correspondence would suffice over “a special meeting” when members were away and school was closed. She typed that the district’s legal team “told me it could be done this way.”

“I never once opined to you about deliberating with the Board in an email thread,” Connetquot’s lawyer replied.

Jaclyn Napolitano-Furno, who served on the board for years until this July, bashed the hushed approach.

“This is not the way to do a controversial topic vote to take action,” replied Napolitano-Furno, who later called talks with New York a “backroom deal” at an August board meeting.

After voices like DiLorenzo and Napolitano-Furno spoke out, the board agreed to a public forum to discuss the issue on Thursday.

Still, the former board member says ignoring McMahon’s Title VI probe and entertaining a deal with the state is “essentially saying F- U to the President of the United States.”