Woodhull School Courtyard to Get Facelift
Woodhull Intermediate School has two interior courtyards. One features a bridge over a pond stocked with colorful fish along with a waterfall. The other isn’t anything to write home about after largely falling into disrepair. A new partnership with the Huntington High School art honor society promises to change this long-running situation.
The joint venture includes Woodhull students, parents, faculty, the school’s beautification committee and the high school teenagers. “At the first beautification committee meeting, the group felt that the first courtyard failed in comparison to the second courtyard with the Koi pond and bridge,” Woodhull Principal Jarrett Stein said.
The committee felt that the first courtyard needed a facelift. “I remembered from my days supervising the clubs and activities at the high school, that the art honor society was always asking for an outdoor wall to practice their mural painting,” Mr. Stein said.
Prior to becoming principal at Woodhull, Mr. Stein was a high school assistant principal. He said the walls of his former office were covered with mural drawings from the art honor society. “After calling some local businesses, no one was looking for mural paintings on the walls,” he said last week. “So, while walking through the courtyard and seeing a big plain brick wall and four corner walls, I figured the art honor society and Woodhull could help each other.”
Before the project was launched, the courtyard area was somewhat of an eyesore. Then Mr. Stein put his plan in motion. “I spoke to Morgan Brown, one of my favorite
seniors at the high school, and a member of the art honor society, who happens to be interning at Woodhull,” he said. “Her face lit up and said the art honor society would love to do a mural on that wall. Later that afternoon, I contacted Kristin Singer, one of the advisors for the art honor society and pitched the idea to her. She loved it, and asked me to come to the high school to speak with the members of the club.”
A few days later Mr. Stein returned to Huntington High School to attend a meeting with the art honor students. “They seemed really excited about the venture, so I informed
them of what was expected of them,” he recalled.
The teenagers were asked to help clean-up and main the courtyard and to work with Woodhull art club members in the planning, sketching and painting of attractive outdoor murals. “They overwhelmingly agreed and came to the school three days later to help with the clean-up and to take pictures and measurements,” Mr. Stein said.
The art work will begin in earnest next spring and continue through the summer. The Woodhull and high school students are “extremely pleased” with progress made so far and “can't wait to get started,” with the creative end of the initiative, Mr. Stein said.
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