OAKLAND — Two schools in Regional School Unit 18 will be spruced up with new paint thanks to a grant program that awards buckets of paint to schools in need.
Messalonskee High School and China Middle School won grants from the True Value Foundation Painting a Brighter Future program, which gives 40 gallons of paint to 100 schools a year to clean up walls and improve the environment for students and teachers.
The paint came from the Agway True Value store in Winslow.
Messalonskee High School and China Middle School both received the grant this year after Claire Heffernan, RSU 18’s school health coordinator, wrote the grant applications.
“The schools are deteriorating, so this is just a real bonus,” Heffernan said. “There’s just no money to buy paint.”
At Messalonskee High School, the paint grant turned into a community service opportunity. The students decided to incorporate a painting project into their Day of Caring, a day when they go out into the community to volunteer at nursing homes, food pantries and schools. The students also have volunteer credit requirements that add up to 40 hours.
Jon Moody, the school’s principal, said he thinks having that structure in place is one reason why their application was successful.
With help from students, staff and the community, the painting at Messalonskee is 90 percent done now, he said. They painted mainly classrooms as well as the guidance office.
Moody has worked at the school since 2000 and said at the least it hasn’t been painted since then. According to Heffernan, 162,000 square feet of walls needed paint at the high school.
Annie Dobos, a 17-year-old junior, was finishing up painting the guidance office purple with some green polka dots on Friday.
“This room used to be a nasty green,” Dobos said. “The new paint will make people who come in here feel a lot better.”
She also said the school has great students and faculty, and the building now reflects that with the new paint.
Dobos is the president of the school’s Key Club chapter, the oldest service program for high school students. She said the community has helped the school during hard times, so it’s important to give back.
China Middle School hasn’t been painted yet, but Principal Lois Bowden said they plan to start over the summer with help from custodians, staff and students from Erskine Academy in South China.
Grant recipients have until Sept. 30 to finish the project.
Bowden said the hallways haven’t been painted since the school became a part of RSU 18 at least, and every hallway looks different now due to attempts to patch up spots that were fading or peeling.
“It really needs a facelift,” she said.
Fixing the environment and making it cleaner and more welcoming will help students think more positively, Bowden said. Nearly 50 percent of students at China Middle School are at poverty level and qualify for reduced-price lunch.
“I think they’ll take more pride in the school after it’s painted,” she said.
Madeline St. Amour – 861-9239
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