This is the second of a three-part series on the extensive changes to Sunny Hills facilities over the summer and during part of August after the 2023-2024 school year started. Part 1 focused on the new paint scheme for campus buildings and lockers. In Part 2, The Accolade will cover how the paint project impacted certain aspects of the school.

It’s all about rebranding.

With the completion of the $390,000 paint project, school officials spent $10,000 contracting with Fullerton-based Fastsigns to add new directional markings schoolwide in hopes of making it easier for students, new staff or visitors to navigate the campus.

“They’ve been really wonderful to work with, and they do a lot of business in our district at other schools as well,” assistant principal Sarah Murrietta said. “They spent a lot of time; they walked the campus multiple times with me to walk through the project and ideas.”

For the hallways, black numbers used to be spray-painted onto the ends of each wing. But once the new color was added to campus facilities, the assistant principal said it was time for a change.

Large, 22-inch-wide-by 20-inch-high panels were screwed onto the wall and now display the yellow “SH” logo at the top along with large white lettering against a black background and a yellow frame.

Twenty-eight signs display a range of building numbers and a yellow arrow below, such as the sign next to the 70s building, which has an arrow to the left and “70-76” while 10 signs display the building number such as “70’s Bldg” or “70’s Building.”

Fastsign employees also added logos to the doors during the summer, and returned later to finish up. The doors also have different designs and display either the “SH” logo or a Lancer head.

“Overall, we’ve gotten many comments from parents and community members — even business members — that have come on to our campus, really noticing the change,” Murrietta said. “They usually say that [the lockers and school] look very modern and so nice; there was a parent that came in and said, ‘It looks so different from when I went to school here.’”

Associated Student Body president Nakul Bhatt said such physical updates were needed.

“The directional signs are just something small that makes such a big impact,” Bhatt said. “Those signs are a great way to assist those people, parents, families or students from other schools that are coming onto our campus.” 

A 96-inch-tall-by-51-inch-wide freestanding vertical sign, as well as two others screwed on the wall behind the cafeteria and behind the 150s building, has also been added behind Room 402 of the engineering building, displaying the locations of many sports fields and the gym.

The sign is rectangular and has a black background with large white lettering and yellow arrows pointing to locations, such as the Gymnasium with an arrow pointing to behind the sign.

Soccer player junior Ethan Castro said he also likes the upgrades.

“Whenever I get out of practice, I always get parents and [other] people ask me, ‘Oh, do you know where the gym is,’ or ‘Where this is?’ ” Castro said. “And then they ended up putting signs up there now, so that was really helpful, and I was like, ‘They don’t [need to] ask me anymore.’”

SURPRISE DISAPPEARANCE OF LOGOS FOR PROGRAMS LIKE DANCE

As part of the campus makeover, school officials decided to remove many building stickers and logos; however, the four murals, the sticker signs for the Lancer weapon outside the PE lockers and three vertical signages scattered on the campus that certify Sunny Hills as a “2019 California Distinguished School” were spared. 

The buildings most affected were the 60s wing — stickers representing the Advancement Via Individual Determination program were detached — and the 130s building — the ones for dance, auto and The Accolade were taken down.

“Those were all vinyl stickers, and they were so detailed that they weren’t able to paint around them, so we had them removed, and so we’re planning to replace it with something new and updated,” Murrietta said.

Despite their disappearance, the assistant principal said this allows the programs to do some rebranding of their own with the plan to put up new logos before the end of the school year.

Teachers in those buildings or wings were not informed of the logo removal and were surprised to return to campus with a blank wall outside their classrooms.

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Accolade Image File

Workers put up the sign for The Accolade in April 2017. The sticker originally displayed Room 139 before being changed to Room 138 the following year. It was painted over this summer.

“At first I thought they were just going to paint around it, but then the next day they were taken off the wall,” dance teacher Leiana Volen said. “So I figured it’s time for some new ones.” 

While Volen is still deciding on how she will go about rebranding the dance logo, Regional Occupation Program [ROP] auto tech teacher Jesse Munoz said he has already received a few designs from his students.

“I had all my students submit designs because the previous design that was up on our wall was from another student [from the previous teacher],” Munoz said. “So I want to keep that tradition built, and it was something I could use as a learning experience.”

IS SH STILL AN ACADEMICALLY RANKED SCHOOL?

Meanwhile, students and staff were also surprised to see a large banner outside the wall of the 170s/180s building had been removed over the summer by district maintenance workers to make room for the painting project. The vertical signage noted Sunny Hills as a top-ranked school in the state by U.S. News and World Report.

Murrietta said she’s working on replacing it, especially since the news organization released new school rankings earlier this school year.

“At this time, Mr. [Craig] Weinreich and I are looking into options for a sign to be created for the same area,” she said.