Walk down the halls of Hadley Elementary School and you won’t see boring white walls and monotoned lockers. You will see halls covered in colorful murals, thanks to former art teacher Carol Pineo.
Pineo started the mural project in 2008, after convincing the school’s leaders that the murals would add to the school environment.
“They were worried we would junk up the walls,” Pineo said.
The first mural was a variety of characters from children’s literature, and after the project turned out well, Pineo got the green light to let students keep painting. Every year since, Pineo has organized and helped create a number of murals — 10 to be exact — all over the school.
Each mural has a theme which corresponds to the location at which its drawn. For example, in the lunchroom there is a mural of personified foods, and in the music room, is a mural full of instruments and musical notes. There is an ancient Egyptian-themed mural, and a dinosaur-themed mural, which Pineo said is a favorite of the school’s younger children.
“It makes the environment more cheery,” said Cathline Regish, a former Hadley Elementary School student and current freshman at Hopkins Academy.
Regish was one of the students who stayed after school to paint murals with Pineo when she was in sixth grade.
All the murals in the school are done by sixth-graders who stay after school to brighten the halls of their school. Pineo says the mural painting is not only an opportunity to make the school more charming, but also gives students the chance to practice and enhance their artistic skills.
“They learn to blend colors and paint freehand,” she said.
Eric Umbereger, another of Pineo’s former students and Hopkins freshman, said he learned a lot from his days staying after school with Pineo.
“All the little things add up,” Umbereger said.
Pineo said that she provides the students with a good amount of freedom when painting the murals, and makes sure they know they are free to hold their own opinions and ideas, even if they aren’t the same as hers.
“I tell the students that it’s OK to disagree with an adult as long as you are respectful, and offer up an alternative,” Pineo said.
Pineo said that she loves to see what each group of students bring to the murals, and that every group makes different choices in terms of color and style.
“They all bring their own silliness,” said Pineo.
And just as Pineo loves and cherishes the differences in each of her students, so too do her students cherish Pineo’s dedication to the school.
Pineo retired at the end of the 2017 school year, but she still came back this recently completed school year to finish one last mural.
“I couldn’t leave one unfinished,” said Pineo with a smile.
The most recent mural is about accepting diversity, something that Pineo says is extremely important.
As Pineo works on that last mural, it’s clear that the art teacher left her mark on the school, in more ways than one.
“She left so much behind,” said Felicia Fil, a former student and current sophomore at Hopkins. “Whoever comes next has big shoes to fill.”