Save the Murals

“Home of the Artists”--this is the slogan at the entrance to Laguna Beach High School’s football field. I find it a delightful change to have a high school athletic team recognizing art instead of some ferocious animal or warlike people.

However, what priority does art really have in the Laguna Beach Unified School District? It was good news to hear last week that the Laguna Beach Board of Education voted to save from destruction “Shadows of the Past,” the life-size murals of Laguna Beach students from the mid-1980s by the late Megan Hart Jones (“ ‘Shadows’ Shaking Up the Present” by Cathy Curtis, Calendar May 27). However, funding, estimated at $25,000 to $30,000, was another matter. The school board says it just can’t afford it.

Now, that’s a puzzle! The Laguna Beach Unified School District is one of the more financially secure in Orange County. There has been no talk of teacher or staff layoffs or of cutbacks in essential services during this difficult budget year. In fact, recently, the board hired an executive search service for $20,000 to find a new district superintendent. There is a $300,000 reconstruction contingency fund for the upcoming high school remodeling.

Given the district’s evident prosperity, it is hard to understand why the board is unwilling to designate funding for at least part of the cost of preserving these murals. Action needs to match words. Experts have testified to the murals’ artistic merit. They are as well a unique social document of student life in the mid-1980s. This may not seem important in 1991, but think of these murals in the context of 50 years from now. Why should there be reluctance to give money to save such a unique object in its own time? I would hate to think that the board is so shortsighted in the “Home of the Artists.” Or is that just a slogan, nothing more?

ANNE FRANK

Laguna Beach