More than a cosmetic change

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- Parents want Costa Mesa High School to look as good on

the outside as it is on the inside.

So they have spent most of the school year finishing a tile wall that

stretches the length of the library, painting the wall and refurbishing

an old bulletin board.

“We are just absolutely thrilled with it,” said Diana Carey, principal

at Costa Mesa High. “It is just so beautiful. It really commemorates all

the good things that are going on here.”

When Bob and Linda Sneen went to paint their family’s obligatory four

tiles at the high school, they got a bit caught up in the effort.

“One of the things that has been really frustrating is that what has

happened at Mesa is the school looks kind of run down, and it affects the

students’ morale and the teachers’ morale,” Bob Sneen said.

He took one look at the wall, with tiles scattered here and there, and

launched a mission that took nearly five months to complete.

The first thing he did was call a tile installer to find out how many

tiles were needed to complete the expanse of the wall.

“We needed another 95 tiles, so we started calling everyone,” he said.

“It became a really huge effort.”

And so work began on the exterior wall of the school’s library, which

faces the quad that serves as the school cafeteria.

As Linda Sneen used her charm and PTA powers to fill the wall, her

husband took a look at the rest of the wall.

He kept going over to the school and trying to imagine the completed

product.

“I thought, as beautiful as this tile wall is going to be, we have to

do something with this huge plywood bulletin board with about 10 years of

staples in it,” he said.

The tiles now flank what was just weeks ago an aged gray plywood

bulletin board with a teal border.

It is now, thanks to the Sneens and Janet Millian -- a very creative

parent -- a bright centerpiece done in the Jason Pollock splatter style

with the letters “CMHS” painted in black.

“We kept doing it with the mind-set that we were going to make this

area colorful and something students could be proud of,” Bob Sneen said.

But he couldn’t stop himself there.

Once the new tiles were all in, he went to the district and got some

paint.

Last weekend, he took that paint, taped off the tile wall and spent

the entire day, until about 8:30 p.m., painting the wall.

“I really think it’s done what we hoped for and created excitement and

improved morale,” he said.