School Gets Lesson in Beautification

Marco Gomez swabbed his paintbrush along the fringes of Abraham Lincoln’s sideburns. He paused, stepping back to examine the effect.

Perfect. On to Abe’s mouth.

A shy man in paint-splattered clothes, Gomez had been a portrait artist in his native El Salvador. For the last month, the North Hollywood father has been volunteering his talents to brighten a new canvas--the walls of Victory Boulevard Elementary, where his children are students.

“All of this is to beautify the school,” he said.

So far, Gomez has spent four Saturdays repainting two student bathrooms and helping create an outdoor mural that depicts holidays celebrated by various cultures.

All of the work is being done by parents and teachers, including a teacher from nearby Strathern Elementary who was recruited to design the mural.

Wanda Levatter, an assistant principal at Victory, said she has already noticed a change in her students since the painting began. The bathrooms, once scuffed by sneakers and littered with wads of paper, have become a source of pride for the children, who are quick to report any affronts.

“They run up to me and say, ‘Ms. Levatter, I checked the bathrooms and they’re clean.’ They go in and make sure nobody’s throwing wet paper towels at the ceiling,” she said.

Sprucing up the drab decor is only one of the ways the school is trying to instill respect, self-esteem and a sense of community.

The 1,700 children are encouraged to wear uniforms, Levatter said, and on Fridays, most of the students don their blue T-shirts emblazoned with a cuddly-looking tiger, the school’s mascot. Teachers have painted all of the school’s doors bright blue and dotted the pavement with little tiger paw-prints to show students the path for fire drills and lunch lines.

“If a place is messy, even some adults might not think twice about throwing a piece of paper on the floor,” said teacher Rosa Willey, rolling a layer of blue paint across a bathroom stall. “But when your house looks nice, you want to take care of it.”

The paintbrushes have even reached across the asphalt playground, where the backboards on the basketball court and the walls of the racquetball area have been painted blue.

The centerpiece of all the artistry is clearly the mural, which wends its way across several walls.

Decorated with such mainstays as Lincoln, George Washington, the American flag and a few Pilgrims, the tableau also features a Filipino star lantern, traditionally used at Christmas, a Jewish menorah and two purple mountains that symbolize the Armenian homeland.

“I just feel that our schools look so institutional that they aren’t welcoming,” said Pam Gosline, the Strathern teacher enlisted to help draw Victory’s mural. “It makes a big impact to have the color there.”