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AVID Senior Students Work Together with Other Student Clubs to Leave their Positive Mark
By: Brandolyn Holton, New Bern High Assistant Principal
Positivity.
That’s the mantra at New Bern High School for the 2019-2020 school year. It is what administration has asked from teachers, support staff, students, and community stakeholders. All too often, the school is forced to focus on the negativity happening all around. Teenage students are, at times, bombarded with negative comments on social media outlets that inevitably take a toll on one’s self-esteem. A team of students and staff within the Bear family decided enough was enough and wanted to instead bombard students with statements of positivity and self-worth. This past weekend, the “bathroom painting project”, which according to Cathy Pratt, AVID elective IV and Biology teacher extraordinaire, has been in the works since September 2018 - unfortunately, in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, the project was forced to be put on hold until this school year.
Principal Jerry Simmons is extremely proud of the implementation of A.V.I.D. (Advancement Via Individual Determination) at New Bern High and the culture this school within a school creates. This particular project was the “brain-child” of the AVID Senior class of 2020 as their chosen senior legacy contribution. Saturday November 23rd, NBH AVID students, in partnership with members from the National Art Honor Society, National Honor Society, DECA, Interact, Junior Civitans, and Tri-M music honor fraternity led the way for a bathroom project. It was their desire, and individual determination, to paint murals exhibiting uplifting and positive quotes in all the bathrooms at 4200 Academic Drive including a much-needed makeover in the restrooms at Caruso-Coates stadium.
Mr. Chris Bennett, art teacher extraordinaire, after being approached last year by Mrs. Pratt, along with his art students, acted as the lead “resident artists” on the murals. With 46 volunteers present, 41 students and 5 adults, and over a 7-hour time frame the bulk of the painting was completed on Saturday. In all, over 198 hours have been dedicated to painting the positivity murals and thus, these volunteers were able to complete two full murals in all student and faculty bathrooms with the exception of 3 bathrooms in the main building and 2 bathrooms in the ROTC/vocational building because of an event occurring on campus during this time. Mrs. Pratt estimates that it will take 4-5 people another 5-10 hours to complete the remaining restrooms. Even so, those that have been completed have already made an impact on the students and staff who’ve seen them both in person and/or on social media.
Additional thanks and gratitude should be extended to Mrs. Sharon Richardson, Assistant Principal in charge of buildings and grounds at New Bern High, Athletic Director Steve Hardee, and custodian DeAngelo Quinn for “sprucing up” the bathrooms in preparation for the artistic work on the murals. Having seen many of these positivity murals, Mrs. Pratt shares her thoughts on the experience, “I expected the murals to be great, but the students absolutely knocked it out of the park”! So the next time you visit 4200 Academic Drive, be sure to visit one of the restrooms, it’s sure to lift your spirit and brighten your day.