Parents Put Sparkle in School’s Cleanup Day

When one of the two lawn mowers sputtered and died at the Fair Avenue Elementary School “Sparkle Day,” school administrators momentarily fretted that the cleanup effort would go unfinished.

Not to worry, though, explained school Assistant Principal Randy Benigno. During the recent community cleanup of the 1,650-student North Hollywood school, landscaper fathers soon arrived at the site and unloaded their trucks.

“All of a sudden there were four lawn mowers going,” Benigno said. Not only was the lawn mowed, but it was edged and weeded. And that’s just the beginning.

About 100 parents, teachers and administrators--along with another 100 youngsters--spent four hours tidying the school, painting restrooms marred by graffiti, planting chilies and tomatoes in a garden for kindergartners and trimming scruffy bushes.

Not to be outdone by the landscaping fathers, a group of mothers diligently attacked the lunch tables.

“The moms worked so hard,” Benigno said. “The lunch tables had graffiti on them, so they sanded down every lunch table. Then they scrubbed them.”

All the work was accomplished on a shoestring budget too, with supplies for the cleanup donated by a local Target store and the food for a parent potluck donated by Ralphs, Carl’s Jr., Taco Bell and McDonald’s. For the last three years, the cleanup has been an annual or semiannual event geared toward making the school a more pleasant place to learn.

“Our whole goal from the beginning was to develop school pride,” Benigno said. “And that has been successful. When I came here in ‘92, we were as ugly as any inner-city school. If you come here now, you wouldn’t see [the quantity of] the graffiti that was here before. The kids’ attitudes have changed. At our school, it is a safe haven for them.”