CHATSWORTH : Group Works to Give School New Paint Job

The problem is that Chatsworth High School needs a new coat of paint, but the Los Angeles Unified School District has enough money to pay for repainting schools only every 30 years.

Now students, parents, and merchants are working on a solution: donated paint and volunteer labor.

Mary Gemuendt, executive director of the Chatsworth Chamber of Commerce, said the idea was born after the chamber sponsored a recent forum at the school.

“A lot of people said the school looked pretty tacky,” Gemuendt said.

Chatsworth Principal Donna Smith said the school has not been painted in many years. The yellow-beige paint is worn, and numerous graffiti paint-outs have created “kind of a patchwork,” she said.

Chamber members met last week and hatched plans for a volunteer community project using the combined forces of parents, students, chamber members and local home-improvement stores to donate materials.

“The school could use it, and it would get the community involved in the school,” Smith said. “And the other part is with the kids--when they see themselves doing it maybe they won’t want to mess it up as much.”

The color of Chatsworth High will remain the same, Smith said.