What's next? Screens! Panels! Stencils! Come Join a team!

Project: Stencils Weekends of 9/26, 10/3, 10/10, 10/17 & 10/24: we're looking for those with some painting skill to help with the application of the leaf patterns. Think you can help? contact sw@stephaniewilsoninteriors.com if you can help with this.
Our next two Portables task are coming up fast, and teams are forming now for a few smaller weekend tasks, so if you have some time to contribute, we'd love the help.
Project: Window Grates
Leader: Ray Calderon
Power washing & spray painting the security grates that go over the portable windows, and getting them ready to be reinstalled. Have time to help with this? Contact Ray Calderon raycalderon@att.blackberry.net
Project: Posting boards
Leader: Christian Bingham / Juliee Beyt / Frances Brooks / Wendy Dunnam Tita
This will be to buy, cut, sand, & paint the plywood boards that will then get mounted by each portable classroom door (12 in all). Useful tools will be: truck, saw, drill. We have all the painting equip and paint to do the job, and will provide exact locations for each board. Please contact jdaz@att.net if you'd like to help on this team or head it up! thanks.

At Last! Doors are done!

HOT as it was, those loyal HP parents and kids showed up and finished up PHASE 1 for good! Wow, what a difference it makes to paint away all that BROWN! Thanks go out to Wes, Juli B, Kieth Ben & Isabel, Bill R, Brian Y, Lawrence L, Eileen C, and to Kevin G for heading up the team.

Want to see more? http://www.flickr.com/photos/jubilee88/show/

Paint Brigade Day 6: all wrapped up!

If you are on campus any time soon, you'll now see that Phase 1 of the Portable Beautification project is just about wrapped up. A friendly crew spent Father's Day amiably sprucing up the once-brown doors, and now they are all a lovely shade of Waterbury Green, to compliment the base Homestead Blue. Next weekend, we'll be looking for a bunch to help paint the insides of the doors/frames. Are you free to help? If so, please contact kgolliher@austin.rr.com for next Saturday's crew time.
For pics of today's weekend's activities: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jubilee88/sets/72157620041642563/show/ Thanks to everyone who has continued to show up and lend a hand and a smile to make this a success!

Before & After

Day 5: Paint Brigade: The Devil is in the Details

Today HP painting partners did the delicate brushwork and touchups, and have just about wrapped-up stage 1: Painting. Tomorrow (Sun 6/28) we'll be starting DOORS and TRIM, so come on out and take a look at the progress so far, grab a brush and let's get those doors done before it gets too hot! Come help us make this campus more beautiful, 2400 sf at a time! Want to see more? http://www.flickr.com/photos/jubilee88/sets/72157620008600368/show/

What's next?

In a word…Inspired! With a few more words we could describe the activities at our school the last few weekend: Fun, hard work, power washing, paint scraping, paint rolling, fabulous volunteers, hot heat, cool looking “Homestead Green”, donuts, pizza, Juliee’s fabulous ice tea, reggae music, tall ladders, nice neighbors with cookies, small helpers, big helpers, in short, people who love our kids and our school doing some really GREAT WORK!
It’s not too late to join the Highland Park Beautiful Campaign. The NEXT structured work weekend of the summer work on the Portable Classroom Buildings will be next Saturday and Sunday (June 20-21).

We will be painting the last of the portable field color along with the doors. We could really use your helpful hands anytime between 7:00 am-1:00 pm those two days. We guarantee that you will leave feeling like you have really been part of what makes our school extraordinary; people who care deeply about their children, school and community.

Please email Wendy Dunnam Tita (wdt@dunnamdodson.com) to let us know if/when you can join us. It will help us plan our work (and supplies) to know who been on our crew for the day(s).

THANK YOU! wdt

Day 4: Paint Brigade-lots of progress!

It's easy to remember what we're all out here for: making it a great environment for all of the kids to grow and learn. The kids really enjoyed pitching in and painting alongside the adults. Below, Stephanie is showing the color palette for the portables against the existing HP brick color. It was a busy painterly day for this crew...we followed the shade and painted on the 'cool'. Next weekend, we'll finish up some detail work and do the doors/door trim. Then we can get started on the stencil/embellishments. Hope to see some of you out there with us in the weeks to come. We've really enjoyed the camaraderie of working together and meeting other HP parents, and would like to work with more of you! To see more, go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jubilee88/sets/72157619742206442/show/

After & Before: they speak for themselves

Possible Hidden Gem? Who knew?!

Yesterday, it was discovered that the original building material for the gymnasium was a pale blue precast concrete panel with blue/green aggregate. You could have knocked us over with a feather! This explains the various teal paint colors all around the HP campus...and may be a 'Phase 5' in the making. A little careful paint removal on those panels would reveal a wall that would coordinate with the portables colors.

New Arrival: Pecan Portable Arriving this summer

AISD has staked out the location of the newest portable set to arrive to the HP campus sometime this summer. It will be oriented with its long wall along the bamboo on the edge of the (former) kickball field. This image shows just about the length of where it will be (just to the left of the sign by the swingset). This will be the PECAN portable, our state tree, and will be cleaned and painted after it arrives.

Day 3: Paint Crew! Oh what a day!

Isn't it always so satisfying to see the paint go up after all that prep work? Well, today was no exception....we stood back and really enjoyed the crisp new color on those portables and felt some real collective joy. It is said that only mad dogs and Englismen go out in the noonday sun, but you'd have to add some dedicated HP Painting-Parents to that list, 'cause we weren't going home until we were halfway done......and we'll be back out there tomorrow, and next weekend, too. Hope more of you can join us to keep up the Beautification Project.










Want to see more? Go here for the slideshow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jubilee88/sets/72157619615320625/show/

PAINT BRIGADE: DAY 3 & 4 : WORK DAY DETAILS

The following people have currently signed up to add their hands to his project for the weekend of June 13-14...painting!!

We are thrilled to have this terrific group of Volunteers but can really use some more hands/rollers/painters. Please consider donating a few hours of your time this weekend. To help us plan our supplies and work more efficiently, please let us know if/when you can join us. E-mail wdt@dunnamdodson.com OR CALL (771-0214) to sign up or get more info. We will have supplies ready to begin at 7:00 a.m. in order to maximize the cooler hours.

Making it Beautiful...one volunteer at a time!

We need your help to make it all work! You know it takes a VILLAGE..come be part of what makes this school so great ! Here's info on volunteering:http://hppta.org/portal/pdf/Scottie%20Informer/HPE_Portables_Flyer.pdf This coming SATURDAY & SUNDAY JUNE 13 & 14 is the BIG PAINT PUSH. YES we need YOUR HELP! YOUR TALL LADDERS, YOUR DROP CLOTHS, and more! Not a painter? Want to watch a bunch of our kids at the park while we paint? We can't wait to see you Saturday & Sunday 7 am (or after)...we'll be there as long as it takes to get it done right!

Work Brigade: Day 2: Whole Lotta Sanding Going On!

Day 2: The Clean Team sanded, scraped & caulked in preparation for next week's PAINT-A-THON! It's official: June in Texas is HOT, so we moved up the start time to 7 a.m. and wow, what a difference it made. Next week's paint crew will do the same to take advantage of the morning cool. This weekend's clean-team was made up of Tammie, Blake, Kristi, Mitchell, Wendy, David, Juliee, Alex, Baron, Albert, Destina, Susan, & James. Check out the slideshow : http://www.flickr.com/photos/jubilee88/sets/72157619328698059/show/

Team Clean: Nothing a little KRUD KUTTER and a whole lot of LOVE won't fix...

Day one of the HP portable project turned out great, with a tough job of scrubbing, scraping, and power-washing the 5 exisiting buildings. Team Portables (and assorted family support team members) were at it for hours...but felt great when we rounded the corner on the last one of the day. To see the team in action, go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jubilee88/sets/72157619345117204/show/

The Votes Are In!

Of 201 votes cast. there were 105 Blue votes & 92 Green votes, 3 either way and 1 neither way. Considering school, community, and neighbor feedback, the portable colors will be based on the Blue color scheme. Thanks to all of you who stopped by to vote/comment, and to volunteer for the project. It's not to late to volunteer, we will be working all summer! If you are able, please e-mail Wendy at wdt@dunnamdodson.com and let us know if you can pitch in to help make this a success. Stage 1: prep/painting the field colors. Stage 2: painting the tree-shadow embellishments (Bur Oak, Redbud & Cottonwood). Stage 3: painting the tree-shadow embellishments on the remaining 3 portables (Live Oak, Buckeye, and Pecan). Stage 4: Silkscreening & affixing the Cornerstones.

Let the voting begin!

Votes for the two proposed color schemes were taken over a 5 day period from neighbors, parents, teachers, staff, and students.

Design Development: Bur Oak

The Bur Oak Portable, near the basketball court, in Design Development. (note that colors on the screen do not accurately represent true paint colors)

http://hppta.org/portal/pdf/Scottie%20Informer/PortablesDesignDescription-final.pdf

Phase 4: Cornerstones

Each of the buildings will have a cornerstone (note the colors shown here are not the actual colors being used), which will identify basic elements about the tree, to extend an educational element to the portables which can be used as a starting point for a unit on trees for the school. The cornerstones will tell the trees':
Species
Genus
Pronunciation
Leaf type, fruit/nut, height
Special facts, & water consumption

Phase 3: Posting Surfaces at Doors

Next to each door, a painted 'button' will be placed, for room identification, teachers' posts, and class names. This will provide teachers with a place to post outside their doors, and keep the embellishments staple-free.

Portables Locations

Each portable will be designated with a tree found throughout Texas, and the leaf-shadow pattern of that tree will be painted on that portable. The trees will be Sycamore, Live Oak, Buckeye, Redbud, Bur Oak, and Pecan.