By David Kilby, Staff Writer
MONROE — The student murals in Monroe Township High School, which dated back to the early 1980s, have been painted over as the Monroe Township school district converts the high school into a middle school.
Many of the murals in MTHS were painted over while students were on spring break April 18 to 22, said Meagan Plichta from the Class of 2007, who began the petition to save the murals, in an e-mail to The Cranbury Press.
A group of Monroe alumni created a petition website, www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-the-mths-student-murals, that obtained 388 signatures, hoping to save the murals.
Four of the stairwells adorned with the student murals were repainted during spring break, Ms. Plichta said. The following weekends, the rest of the murals were covered.
The painted stairwells contained the work of James Newton, a student of the Class of 1999, who died shortly after his graduation in a car accident.
There was also a memorial mural to James in the school.
”The most distressing part of this is that there was no formal notification to the community that the murals were going to be painted over,” Ms. Plichta said.
”Some staff members (at the high school and middle school) knew the plan, and that’s how the petition got started,” she said. “And since there was no formal notification, the community still does not know why the decision was made for the murals to be painted over.”
She added, “I didn’t paint a mural nor am I related to anyone who did.”
When she heard the murals would be painted over, from people she knows who work for the district, she sought to at least inform the five or so people she personally knew had painted murals her senior year.
Word spread through Facebook, and the group collectively decided a petition should be started.
”Preserving what’s left of the murals is not only important to me because I know so many of the people who painted them, but because they give the school a certain identity that will be lost if they are taken away,” Ms. Plichta said. “They give the school character and are visual mementos of the school’s 30-plus year history as well as the legacy of every student who has walked its halls in the company of those murals.”
She explained the painting of the murals started in the early 1980s, shortly after the school was built. In order to paint a mural, a student had to be in the art careers class or a club could ask an art student to paint one, Ms. Plichta said.
She added there were murals covering most of the hallways and stairwells in the two-story school. They’re painted in spaces above lockers, around doorframes, under the windows of the media center and “really just anywhere there is space,” she said.
The murals vary in size, but most are at least a few feet wide. They range from the controversial, such as a mural with multiple images of Che Guevara, a Marxist revolutionary, in an upstairs hallway, to the poetic, such as one with a quote from Shel Silverstein’s “Where the Sidewalk Ends” located by the cafeteria, to the somber, such as the 9/11 memorial mural painted in one of the stairwells.
Kenneth Hamilton, superintendent of schools, said the decision to paint over the murals was made before he became superintendent, but he stands behind the district’s decision.
He said all of the murals have been archived. The Monroe High School website, monroenj.schoolwires.com/monroeths/site/default.asj, has a slide show of the murals.
”There will be a really nice display in the new high school,” he said, adding some of the murals were inappropriate for middle school students.
”The middle school students will have a chance to create their own history in the building,” he added.
”The murals are not erased,” he said. “There’s been careful planning that they’ve been photographed. (Students and alumni) will have the opportunity in the new high school to honor and respect the history of the murals.”
Alexa Kane, artist of the 9/11 memorial mural, said the display in the new high school won’t be the same.
”My mural definitely meant a lot to me,” said Ms. Kane, a member of the Class of 2008 and resident of Monroe.
”The September 11 mural was an important part of my life,” she said. “It helped me cope with the entire situation. It’s almost a part of me, a huge accomplishment, that’s being painted over.
She added, “What will white walls do to inspire children?”
There were three scenes in her mural, one of the twin towers as they originally were, one with the towers on fire and one with tombstones of those who perished in the attacks.
The mural also reads, “Everything is everything, but you’re still missing,” a line from Bruce Springstein’s song “You’re Missing” from “The Rising” album.
She said the mural to James had handprints and comments that can’t be replaced and would be too small to notice in the new display.
She said that mural and her 9/11 mural wouldn’t negatively affect middle school students.
”Those who weren’t old enough to understand what happened, by passing by that (9/11) mural every day, can have a better understanding of what happened,” she said.
Stefanie Sivilich, artist of the Falcons mural in the cafeteria and the 99 red balloons mural, said she has a very strong opinion about the murals being painted over.
She was an art student all four years at MTHS and painted the mural of the Falcon, the school mascot, for the 2007 student council.
She painted the 99 red balloons in 2006 in the upper hallway by the pottery room.
She said every mural had to be approved by the Board of Education before they could be painted.
Her 99 red balloons had a quote from the “99 Red Balloon” song by Nena, reading “99 red balloons, each one a dream I had.”
”Most of the murals have educational value or are used to represent a classroom or the library,” Ms. Sivilich said. “They were never painted to offend anyone, and I don’t see the reason why they need to be painted over in the first place. Instead, it’s just destroying artwork that can never again be replaced.
She added, “The mural program brings awareness to the arts, which most students tend to overlook. Many of the students enjoy watching the murals be painted. I cannot tell you how many questions a day I got from random students while painting those murals. Just because it will no longer be the current high school does not mean the younger kids cannot enjoy the artwork.”

