Pilgrim upgrades raises concerns over murals

Carmen Russo
Posted 6/16/16

As Pilgrim High School begins a series of renovations, concerns have been raised with the administration's plans to repaint the building. Student murals that have been on display for years will now be covered in a new coat of paint.

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Pilgrim upgrades raises concerns over murals

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As Pilgrim High School begins a series of renovations, concerns have been raised with the administration’s plans to repaint the building. Student murals that have been on display for years will now be covered in a new coat of paint.

Pilgrim will hire a professional photographer to take digital pictures of the murals, which will be enlarged, framed or mounted on a backing and displayed elsewhere in the school, according to a Connect-Ed message from Superintendent Philip Thornton. A Pilgrim student has also taken pictures, which will be compiled into an online album available to the public. Any murals that were installed to memorialize deceased students will not be removed or altered.

“I believe it is heartless if you choose not to reconsider painting over them,” parent Elizabeth LeJeune wrote in an email to the superintendent. “This artwork represents individual students that were thrilled to have the ability to share their talent on the walls of Pilgrim High School.”

LeJeune believes that removing the murals will be emotionally harmful to the students.

In response, Dr. Phil Thornton, superintendent of Warwick schools, believes that students will have just as much to be proud of as their artwork is on display in new form. He noted that as high-resolution photographs, the re-purposed murals could be put on display anywhere in the community, whether at the school, in an art show, or at City Hall.

Thornton also expressed Pilgrim’s dire need for renovations and upgrades.

“We understand the school wanting to retain some of its individuality, but if you walk through Pilgrim you can see it’s in desperate need of repainting,” he said. “It will make the school fresher and cleaner for the students.”

While Pamela Bernardi, interim principal at Pilgrim, also recognizes that building updates have to happen, she cautions that the murals need to be handled with sensitivity.

“At this time, I’m trying to get the original artists and their families to tell us what they want to be done,” she said. “It’s not just about the students who have been memorialized. We also have situations where the artists have since passed and their murals have now become memorials.”

One artist died from cancer soon after she graduated from Pilgrim. Another was killed in the 2003 fire at The Station nightclub.

To carefully preserve these memories, Bernardi and some concerned faculty and students have been reaching out to artists and their families through social media. Bernardi also noted that when the online album is finished, it will be available through Shutterfly, a website that allows anyone to share and print uploaded photos or even turn them into cards or photobooks. In the fall, Pilgrim’s new principal Gerald Habershaw will begin meeting with students and faculty to discuss how the professional digital prints of the murals will be displayed.

However, some still maintain that the murals do not need to be removed. Since Pilgrim is preparing to take on about 380 more students due to the closure of Warwick Veterans High School, more lockers need to be installed to accommodate these students. Many of the new lockers would be put along the walls where murals are on display, which is another factor to consider in the decision to remove the murals, according to Thornton. The company that made them is no longer in business, so they have not been fixed.

Joe Belanger, an art teacher at Pilgrim, wonders why these inoperable lockers aren’t repaired before even more lockers are installed. Students have also pointed out another hallway that could be used for lockers if the class photos on the walls were moved to the front entrance of the school. Belanger has used a classroom in the mural-filled hallway for the past two years, and often sees freshmen students come to see paintings that were done by their mothers and fathers.

“This is history that has been left behind for other generations to see,” he said.

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  • knowthetruth4

    Nearly half a million dollars wasted by Warwick Public Schools in just over 1 year.

    June 7, 2016

    The Warwick School Committee and Warwick Public Schools administration has spent $421,894.85 from April 2015 to June 1st 2016 on non-educational vendor payouts. This information was requested from the school department this month by an attorney and the results are beyond staggering. The request was made under the freedom of information act and the following questions were asked of the school department:

    -What has been the total amount paid to the law firm of Brennan, Recupero, Cascione, Scungio, and McAllister from their hire date until the end of May 2016?

    -What is the name of the outside public relations firm hired by the school department as well as all fees and compensation paid to them since their date of hire?

    -What are the total amount of fees, expenses, and all other compensation that has been paid to the SMMA consulting firm since their date of hire?

    Given the state of affairs in Warwick's schools it is astounding to see how much money has been spent on nothing that benefits the education of the students in Warwick. Below is a list of the totals obtained directly from the school department from their vendor check summary released today:

    -The law office has received $147,719.08 from 7/28/2015 to 5/03/2016.

    -The public relations firm of Martin and Associates has received $27,580.00 from 1/26/2016 to 5/31/2016.

    -The SMMA consulting firm has received $246,595.77 from 4/22/2015 to 5/10/2016.

    -The grand total from all three of these items is a staggering $421,894.85.

    The school committee and administration have been crying poverty for years and demanded that we need school consolidation for tax relief of Warwick's citizens. Spending nearly $422,000 in a year on non-educational expenses is anything but tax relief. The citizens of Warwick need to call the school committee, as well as the administration, and demand that your tax dollars not be wasted in such a way.

    The elected school committee could simply negotiate with the Warwick Teachers Union and then you would no longer need an outside law firm to fight everything in court. The top heavy school administration could use some of their work day, that they are paid very well for by the way, to handle public relations and logistical planning of our school department. This would eliminate the need for Martin and associates as well as SMMA.

    How many laid off teachers would this amount have saved? How many chrome books could have been handed out to Warwick's students? How outraged will the public be after learning about such frivolous spending of their tax dollars? One will have to wait and see.

    Monday, June 20, 2016 Report this

  • AGoodinson

    Outraged. As one of the many artists of Pilgrim High School I am so disappointed in the Warwick School Administration for even considering this kind of "renovation" a fresh coat of paint over years and years of history will not benefit the school. How about we fix the falling, moldy ceiling tiles and sunken in floors?! My senior year I was awarded the Sage College Book Award for the arts and left behind a few murals on the walls. I always thought of how rewarding it would be to one day have my son walk the halls and be able to say, "My mom painted that!" This would not be a renovation, rather a downgrade for Pilgrim. I don't care how "high quality" the photographs would be to replace these historical pieces! Obviously Superintendent Philip Thornton has never created a masterpiece! I'm sure he also doesn't know that you can't see the collection of brush strokes in a photo the way you can on the original surface. You can't feel the clumps of paint or see the handprint or signature left behind. I had always been a proud Pilgrim Patriot that appreciated the schools love and respect of the arts. But today I'm ashamed of the Warwick Schools Administration.

    Monday, June 20, 2016 Report this