This is the last of a three-part series on the additional changes to Sunny Hills facilities over the summer and during the 2024-2025 school year. These updates follow the larger makeover that started in the previous school year with a campus-wide painting project followed by new signage in hallways and outside athletic facilities. The Accolade will address the Art Club’s latest project.

Part 1 focused on newly added program logos.

Part 2 addressed recent changes with a new minitron and maintaining the old jumbotron.

“GOLD BLOODED.” That’s what’s written on some of Sunny Hills’ spirit T-shirts of the same color as the first word of the phrase.

As a well-known motto of the school, it represents the students’ pride and connectivity with the community.

The Art Club took up the task of showcasing school pride by creating a mural at the end of the 10s hallway with bold black, gold and white paint. It reads “GOLD BLOODED” and features the SH mascot, Winston the Lancer.

The club used this opportunity for the members to contribute to a three-year-long legacy, Class of 2024 former co-president Zoe Kim said.

“From the last two murals, I’ve learned about the process of painting murals on campus and how to lead the other members in painting,” Kim said. “I hope we can create a fun piece of art that encourages students whenever they see it and that it can make a good impression on the people entering the school.”

Three years ago, the Art Club proposed to create a mural, which can now be found on the Performing Arts Center [PAC].

“We thought it would be a great way to advertise and promote [the school and its COFA program],” principal Craig Weinreich said.

Once the Art Club finished the COFA mural, the group requested to create another one for the 2022-2023 school year to spread awareness of the importance of mental health, which the administration later approved.

“The Art Club students came and told me that they were curious about [making another mural], and they referenced the COFA mural,” Weinreich said. “They talked about and presented some ideas for [a new mural].”

Located on the Lyceum’s walls, the “You Matter” mural acts as a mental health slogan, the principal said.

Featuring Sunny Hills’ official colors by using a black and gold theme, the mural is a positive addition to spreading mental awareness among the students.

At the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, Weinreich and assistant principal Sarah Murrietta requested that the Art Club create another work, this time to represent the students’ identities.

“While the other two murals were meant for slightly more specific topics like COFA [and] mental health, this one is about overall school pride,” Kim said.

The club produced this next project for one main reason.

“The Art Club hopes to make a good impression on any visitors and students through the ‘Gold Blooded’ mural, conveying the powerful pride of the SH students,” co-president senior Tiffany Che said.

The process to get a design approved took many steps, and took numerous drafts to choose the final design, Che said.

After choosing the top few designs, the club presented them to Weinreich and Murrietta, who approved the final design.

“We emailed principal Weinreich and Ms. Murrietta; we told them the location and the theme, and then we waited for their approval,” Che said. “Once they approved the location of the mural, we emailed a draft of the design, and once they approved it, we got started with it.”

“While trying to create a design for the mural, I experimented with different art styles until we finally settled on loose, modern pop art,” the senior co-president said. “It was a challenging process, but it was also satisfying to see it come together.”

The cabinet’s efforts and cooperation helped the procedure run smoothly.

“The cabinet worked really well together to come up with these ideas, and they worked pretty fairly to talk about their design and get some feedback within each other,” Art Club adviser Vashtty Lemus said.

The costs are funded by both the club and the school; for example, when they ran out of paint for the “Gold Blooded” mural, the school ordered and bought more for them, Weinreich said. So far, the school has purchased $200 worth of supplies for the project.

While the sketching process is for cabinet members only, Art Club members are free to contribute to the painting and the finishing processes of the mural, Lemus said.

The art teacher said the art piece is purposely located near the entrance of the school, so students and visitors can immediately recognize the spirit of the campus.

While the mural, which is set to be finished before the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, is not yet completed, the cabinet members are willing to work on the mural during summer break, social commissioner senior Elaine Nguyen said.

Students who utilize the entrance to the school have begun to notice the golden marks on the walls where lockers used to take their place.

“I saw it when I was getting dropped off for school,” sophomore Niveen Hassan said. “I thought it was coming out really good, and it’s a good addition to the school.”

However, the mural made a particular impression, differing from the sophomore’s, on senior Sophia Kiker, who had seen the past two murals.

“My first impression of the mural was an instant recollection of the one painted next to the Lyceum that some of my friends from Art Club made,” Kiker said. “I was excited to see that the school is allowing students to personalize and colorize the school to increase school spirit.”

MORE FIXTURES ADDED

Five picnic tables in front of the 20’s building were installed last summer. 

To add these tables, the school had to remove the plants, level the ground, lay the concrete, put in the irrigation, plant the trees and finally put the tables, Murrietta said.

“I noticed the tables when they first brought them in,” said sophomore Hassan Hassan, whose PE coach Jimmy Valenzuela told him about how the tables were going to be added beforehand. “In my fifth period class, when I have free time due to getting ahead of my work, I walk out of the classroom and practice guitar on the tables.”

Murrietta wrote in an email to The Accolade that more signs have been added as the school year progress:

• “Welcome to Sunny Hills” displayed in front of the secretaries’ desks in Room 4
• Signs in the cafeteria
• Directional signage along the walkway leading to the front of the office from the PAC

The assistant principal said in the email that Sunny Hills is planning for these other improvements for this summer and beyond:

• Painting and upgrading the counters in the Aspen room in the Lyceum
• Finding solutions to the flooding issues between the 70s and 90s wings and the 80s and 100s wings

“I noticed the upgrade in the middle of the school year,” Hassan said, referring to the Aspen room. “I thought it was nice.”