Parents crusade to repaint Huntington Beach High

Jennifer K Mahal

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Huntington Beach High School’s math and science

building is covered with age spots. Paint cracks on its two-story beige

body need a moisturizing new coat.

But looking at the Main Street building’s worn face doesn’t sag the

spirit of Gail Pelliccioni. Instead, it inspires the Huntington Beach

mother of two teenagers to try her hand at some building cosmetology.

Pelliccioni is determined to see the math and science building painted by

the end of spring break. She is spearheading an effort, along with the

school’s Parent-Teacher-Student Assn., to raise $14,000 by mid-April to

cover painting costs. The Painting the Way campaign, which she chairs,

has already raised $8,000.

“We have a right to make this building a nice place for the kids,”

Pelliccioni said. “We can’t change the world, but shame on us if we don’t

try and do a few little things.”

Their efforts have received a big boost from Ed Laird, who agreed to

supply the paint, she said. He owns Coatings Resource, a company that

manufactures paint.

The group still needs money to pay the painters.

“What’s really great is to live in a community where parents go above and

beyond what the district and the site can do,” Principal Frank Berry

said.

Painting, said association treasurer and High School Foundation chair

Sylvia Garrett, is fairly low on the district’s list of priorities.

With electrical and plumbing work needed in many school buildings,

worrying about the cosmetic side ranks pretty low. District officials

have estimated that around $160 million is needed to repair its aging

schools.

“All of the repairs are much too extensive to do as parents,” Pelliccioni

said, “but we can hire painters.”

The math and science building’s 18 classrooms were built in 1976 and

never repainted, said Garrett, who has a sophomore at the school.

“The paint that you see on there is the original paint job,” she said.

Painting a school is not like painting a home. There are layers of

regulations and policies involved, Garrett said. However, Pelliccioni and

the association has been doing everything by the book, she said.

“[The association] has the reputation of punch and cookies,” Garrett

said. “It does an awful lot more than that.”

And, if anyone can get the job done, it’s Pelliccioni, who two years ago

headed a successful effort to renovate the Ethel Dwyer Middle School

auditorium. She has an eighth-grader attending there.

“She was a godsend,” Dwyer Principal Ian Collins said.

Pelliccioni raised at least $50,000 during Dwyer’s Return to Glory

campaign. Not stopping there, she oversaw reconstruction of the

auditorium in summer 1998. If anyone can get the high school’s math and

science building painted, Collins and Garrett both agree it’s

Pelliccioni.

“Believe me, she’ll get it done,” Collins said. “She’s just a tiger when

it comes to that.”Pelliccioni said she has five years left at the high

school between her two kids, and she plans to make a difference.

“I always try and tackle projects no one wants to do,” she said. “No one

works fast enough for me.”

Pelliccioni wants to get this project started by spring break, which

begins April 17. The painters have to washthe building and start

preparations, she said.

But if the money doesn’t come through in time, the project will be pushed

back to summer, she said.

Donations for the Painting the Way campaign can be sent in care of Gail

Pelliccioni, 18201 Ivorycrest Lane, Huntington Beach 92648. For more

information, call Pelliccioni at 842-0882.