Focus on TUSD - November 2007

From Planters to Pictures
Community Partners Help Howell Elementary Spruce Up
After a community clean-up project, visitors to Howell Elementary School at 401 N. Irving Road can see newly painted murals and boxes filled with freshly planted flowers and vegetables.

But what they can't see is the interaction between community members and the students, a by-product of the project that Principal Joan Gilbert sought.

"My main goal was to have people come to our school and have the students meet people in the neighborhood," she said. "I wasn't thinking so much about the improvements."

It turned out she got both the improvements and the interaction after she scheduled everyone's work time on a large grid. On Wednesday, Oct. 3, about 30 community volunteers joined about 70 students for six hours. On Saturday, Oct. 6, about 30 Davis-Monthan Air Force Base staff pitched in with about 60 parents and about 30 students added another six hours.

That meant a lot of work got done. One side of the Opening Minds through the Arts portable classroom now sports a gigantic mural featuring children's ideas that Dawn Malosh, a volunteer artist, helped them implement.

"It looks really nice," said fifth-grader Delfina Morales, who helped with the project. "It brightens it up. It's new, and when people walk by, they can see that children did it."

Volunteers refurbished a raised garden and built a new one. Children who eat in the cafeteria will enjoy the squash, beans and pumpkins they raise in the garden. And everyone will enjoy the marigolds, petunias and snapdragons planted to give the area a splash of color, Gilbert said.

KVOA-TV Channel 4 was the main partner in the United Way's Days of Caring. Channel 4 staff members refurbished the gardens, helped paint the kindergarten storage shed, the ramada and the kindergarten portable classroom mural and videotaped the children for a public service announcement.

The Air Force base employees painted two ramadas and the shed.

Gilbert said Howell's first year of participation in the United Way's project was well worth the time. "At first, I had only a couple of little ideas, and then people said, 'What about this?' and I said, 'OK,' and they said, 'What about this?' and I said, 'OK,' so the project kept growing."

TUSD supplied paint for the ramada and Oscar Moreno prepped it. Lowe's donated more than $600 worth of paint and supplied dirt for the garden, which cost about $200 per garden. Health Net of Arizona, an insurance company, helped paint the mural. IBM built the new garden boxes and added plants. Wild Oats supplied lunch on Wednesday. Mimi's Café brought muffins, Fry's gave a $20 gift card and Wal-Mart helped with other needs.

"It was incredible," Gilbert said. "Everyone just started helping us."

Christian Hagedon, a fifth-grader, said the spruced up campus makes children proud of their schools.

-- By Sharon Dunham
Communications & Media Relations

TUSD - Proud Supporter of Small Classes

Photos in the November issue by Jes Ruvalcaba of Communications & Media Relations, unless otherwise noted.

The deadline to submit material for the December Focus is Friday, Nov. 7. The Focus will be published Monday, Nov. 17. Email submissions to Chyrl Hill Lander or Sharon Dunham in the Communications & Media Relations Department or use the online Tip Sheet.