Alta Loma Middle School finally has a new school mural.
In the fall of 2022, Tom Seibert of Murals for Schools completed work on a design showcasing the school’s mascot after only four days on the job.
“I love it. It looks so good,” said Alta Loma Middle School teacher Erica Odencrans. “Even the kids. . .they’re all excited about it.”
The entire process from start to finish took a little longer, though: three years to be precise.
Odencrans, who teaches physical education and leadership, met Seibert at a conference in San Diego hosted by the California Association of Directors of Activities (CADA) in 2019.
After viewing some of Seibert’s designs and discovering that his company had previously painted a mural for El Camino High School, Odencrans pitched Alta Loma administrators with the idea for a mural of their own.
She also enlisted the help of the school’s parent teacher association, which filled out a grant application from Genentech to fund the project.
“After one-and-a-half years of distance learning, it was important for us to rebuild and establish our community with school beautification projects, and it only seemed fitting to display our community pride on the tallest building in our school,” said Alta Loma Principal Nina Mendez.
Seibert whose company is based in Orange County is an artist by trade who stumbled into painting school murals in the mid-1990s.
“It was the best thing I ever did,” he said.
According to Seibert, a giant template generated using a machine called an electro pounce helps him to paint murals quickly.
“Then you take that, and you put it on the wall and hit it with charcoal dust, and it goes onto the wall, so that just gives you the pattern where you need to paint,” he said. “It’s like a coloring book. The easiest part is painting it in.”