Parent Kelly Dunham, a former home and school club member at the old Burnett Elementary School, wants to know what will become of the welcoming mural that her son, as well as all one-time students of the former northwest Morgan Hill school, helped paint.
With the Morgan Hill Unified School District moving forward with a $7 million modernization project at the old Burnett campus, which will be christened the new home of Central Continuation High School for the 2013-14 school year, the student-constructed mural may have seen its last days.
“I find it sad that the mural will be torn down and believe the district can make changes to the building without damaging the mural,” said Dunham, who helped the school acquire a $10,000 grant from the Intero Foundation back in 2006 to fund the mural project at Burnett.
There may be hope to save to the mural, however. The district has yet to decide what to do with it and workers have put a protective plastic cover over it to prevent any damage as construction begins.
“The district and the architects are aware of the mural and we understand the importance of it to the Burnett community,” said Anessa Espinosa, Director of Facilities for MHUSD. “It is currently covered for protection from work that is going on around it at this point.”
Former Burnett students’ hard work contributed to the large, colorful mural, which was first sketched by an artist before each child gave it at least one brush stroke. Painted on the wall from top to bottom is a picturesque countryside of rolling hills behind a small red school house with the words “perseverance” and “respect” written on two yellow flags. In front of the school house are children holding hands, a family of bears (the school’s former mascot) and the Burnett bell.
“It was a school-wide art project,” explained former Burnett Elementary principal Barbara Neal, now the principal at Nordstrom Elementary School. “It was a sense of pride. It depicted a scenario that they all felt an attachment to.”
The week-long, school-wide art project was completed a couple of years before Burnett Elementary was closed down in spring of 2009, a cost-cutting move by MHUSD brought on by the state budget crisis of the time. Most students were transferred to P.A. Walsh Elementary, while Burnett administrators and faculty were shuffled to other schools.
But the mural remained, as the elementary school was left vacant.
“It’s hard to address (what should be done with the mural) because a mural needs to fit in with the surrounding area…depict the local community,” said Neal, describing the mural as fit for an “elementary school setting.”
With high school-aged students set to fill the campus at the start of next school year, the mural may not complement its new surroundings. The site, however, may take on other uses in addition to being a continuation high school such as a young mothers’ program and day care.
“I think it can stay,” said Dunham, whose son, now in the eighth grade, recalled painting part of the bears when it was his turn to add some color to the mural. “Maybe they don’t even realize that kids were part of painting it. Maybe they don’t understand the history of it.”
The district does understand the mural’s significance, and that’s why they are preserving it for now. District staff plans to reach out to concerned parents to evaluate all possible outcomes.
Espinosa explained that the “current modernization design includes relocation of the school office to the multi-purpose room with the entrance door and windows on the wall where the mural is located.”
But, she continued, “the work on the wall will not take place until a decision is made about how to preserve the work and history of the mural in some form.”
Burnett Elementary School was the first Morgan Hill school and was built at a different location in 1856. In 1897, a new two-story school house was built at the corner of Burnett Avenue and Monterey Road. Further growth warranted another new school, the current site at 85 Tilton Ave.
The Burnett modernization is the first project using Measure G funds, the $198 million bond approved by residents in November 2012 by a 64 percent vote. In March, the Board of Education gave the go-ahead by a 6-1 vote to begin the renovations, as well as designate the former Burnett campus as the new Central Continuation High School site in 2013-14. The move has taken some heat from residents who live in the area and would rather see the facility reopened as an elementary school.
Other summer projects, not yet voted on by the board, include the construction of a multipurpose room at the Charter School of Morgan Hill, fencing at Britton Middle School and various roofing projects at other facilities.
