White paint replaces Crestview High murals
Brian Hughes
Crestview News Bulletin
CRESTVIEW - A few deft strokes of the roller, and all that remained of mural #28, “Peace, Love, Unity & Respect,” was a faint ghost of its image beneath a coat of white primer. Within days, the artwork, which 78 percent of respondents to a school-wide and community poll elected to preserve, will be a mere memory.
Crestview High School’s new principal, Ed Coleman, is proceeding with a hallway painting project that has drawn criticism because it is obliterating student-created wall murals and graphics.
Part of a number of summer refurbishments and construction projects, the hallway painting is replacing dull off-white and blue walls with dazzling white gloss surfaces accented by a 16-inch wide bright “Bulldog red” horizontal stripe and doors.
A committee formed by science teacher Michael Cheney was charged with making recommendations on the fate of the 44 murals to the principal.
“Mr. Cheney formed a committee to select four murals to phase out,” said Coleman. “They also gave a second recommendation to me, which was to preserve 26 of them.”
“We have selected four murals, in keeping with the views of our department chairs and faculty,” said Coleman, to form the foundation of a “new tradition” of murals to be professionally rendered based on themes originated by each incoming freshman class.
“The class of 2011, coming in next year, will have a whole year to come up with a theme. And that mural will stay up for four years,” Coleman explained. It would be replaced after they graduate by a mural created by the class of 2015.
If the Cheney committee’s recommendation is followed, the incoming freshmen’s mural will cover over “Elephant,” one of the four murals selected for temporary reprieve. The committee’s other top three murals, in order of preservation, are “The Big Red Machine,” “Safe Harbor” and “The American Dream,” which would be the last to be painted over.
“The decision that was made is based on input from all stakeholders: department chairs, faculty, the community, and students,” said Coleman.
Though the hallway painting project has generated some controversy, “Out of 1,900 students, 150 faculty and 30 support staff, we only had a 143 express any interest in the murals at all,” Coleman observed.
By the time the class of 2014 graduates, the murals enjoyed each school day by the class of 2007 will all be memories in an album planned for display in the Crestview High’s media center.
