Teacher, students give LHS girls locker room a ‘mini Extreme Makeover’

Locker rooms are often austere places — stark, barren, cell-like.

La Grande High School’s girls dressing room has a much improved look thanks to the efforts of students who helped paint and renovate it. Their work included the installation of stenciled inspirational phrases like the one shown above. The students who helped with the project include, from left, Rachel Diebel, Jordyn Roberts, Ashley Stremcha, Amity Jackman and Marie Dalton. - The Observer/DICK MASON

La Grande High School’s girls locker room was once such place. Not today though, not after a remarkable makeover by physical education and health teacher Brita Nelson and her students. The group painted the entire locker room, put up 10 pieces of art work, installed stenciled wall messages and more.

The project was completed early this month when an American flag was put in the locker room. It was a crowning touch for a project that Nelson devoted much of her summer to with the help of about eight students. What they accomplished impressed students like senior Britanni Good when she saw the finished result for the first time.

“It was a mini Extreme Makeover,’’ Good said — a  makeover that took much longer than the kind shown on television. The long days spent on the project yielded impressive dividends. Rob Simer, La Grande High School’s head custodian, is amazed at the job Nelson and her crew did.

“That group will always be our champions,’’ Simer said.

Simer joked that he had his concerns at first. When he saw girls coming out of the locker room with paint in their hair, he was worried.

“I thought, My God, if it is in their hair, where else is it?’’ Simer said.

The paint was applied precisely where it was supposed to be and the girls left the locker room and everything in it spotless. Even the brushes and rollers the LHS students used did not have to be cleaned, Simer said.

The LHS girls locker room had not been renovated since it was built in the 1950s. The boys locker room had been painted and spruced up in the mid-1970s when major additions and renovations were made at LHS following the passage of a bond levy. The girls locker room languished in the interim, clean but stark.

“It was antiquated,’’ Simer said. “After 50 years she (Nelson) is the first teacher to take this step.’’

Many of the paintings put up are ones by Nelson’s father, Frank, an artist and a retired teacher.

“The kids wanted real artwork instead of posters. It adds a sense of permanence,’’ Nelson said.

The laminated stencil wall prints, which have inspirational messages, are not permanent. Yet they are so striking it appears they were hand-painted. They have messages such as, “Our greatest glory is not In never falling, but In rising every time we fall.’’

“Kids love quotes,’’ said Nelson, who is starting her first year at LHS after previously teaching at La Grande Middle School.

The paint used in the locker room is several shades of green including Resort (medium) and Florentine (light). The colors were selected because they complement the locker room’s institutional yellow and aqua-colored tiles. Nelson considered using white and royal blue, the LHS school colors. She decided against it because it would clash with the institutional yellow and aqua.

A highlight of the locker room renovation project is Nelson’s office. The office, once as stark as the rest of the locker room, was also repainted and decorated. Nelson also removed the overhead lights and brought in lamps. A centerpiece of the office project is Nelson’s desk, which was spraypainted gold.

All this has added warmth to the office, making it an inviting place for students to enter. It is meant to be a welcoming environment for students who need to discuss important personal issues.

“It is a safe place for them to talk,’’ Nelson said.

She hopes that the atmosphere created by the office decor will make it easy for concerned students to start causal discussions.

“If it starts light, it can turn into a deeper conversation,’’ Nelson said.

The physical education teacher wants the office to symbolize to students that her presence is lasting.

“I’m here, I’m not going anywhere.’’

Students who played a major role in helping with the locker room project include Jordyn Roberts, Amity Jackman, Molly Valainis, Ashley Stremcha, Marie Dalton, Morgan Babcock, Rachel Diebel and Kelly Walker. The girls spent many hours painting the locker room over the summer.

The students symbolize the kind of youths found in the Grande Ronde Valley, ones Nelson cannot stop talking about.

LOCKER ROOM RENOVATION: Freshman Rachel Diebel installs a flag in La Grande High School’s renovated girls locker room. Diebel is among the students who helped spruce up the locker room as part of a project led by physical education and health teacher Brita Nelson. - The Observer/DICK MASON

“This community is so lucky to have the kind of kids we have,’’ Nelson said.

People in the La Grande School District also played a crucial role in the success of the project, Nelson said. She credits Operations Director Gary Howland, LHS Principal Doug Potter, Assistant Principal Andrea Waldrop and the LHS custodial staff with providing valuable assistance.

“Whenever we needed anything they got it. They were amazing,’’ Nelson said.

A number of people praised Nelson for the work she put in over the summer on the project. She feels uneasy about being singled out because so many of her colleagues also devoted their summer to preparing for the school year.

“Every teacher I knew was here (working at LHS) almost all summer.’’

Nelson’s students are treating the new renovated locker room not like a dressing room, but more like a home. Their teacher never has to pick up after students following class.

“They are keeping it spotless,’’ Nelson said. “Kids respect a nice environment.’’