On Oct. 2, the company Creative Consortium finished putting up a collage of the MSHS student body in the Commons. The new wall mural includes team photos for past state championships, school activities, such as marching band, and more. The wall was left with a blank space to fill in as the years go on. It was installed to replace the large photograph display for the state champions because the wall was running out of space and the photos were fading.

Principal Anna Conrad hopes to ensure that MSHS is a reflection of its current students, in order to make the students feel seen and reflected by the space around them. “It helps us honor the past, while we’re also celebrating the present and having room for the future,” Conrad said.

Many students, including Meadow Danielle Bayless (10),  have already taken notice of the mural. “I think it’s great,” Bayless said. “I love seeing all the little memories that we have with Manitou, and I think it really represents the school.”

Although the process of putting the mural up only took a few days, it has been in the works since early last year. It took so long because it needed to go through several design reworks and overall color palette changes. “We’d hoped to install it before school started,” Conrad said, “However, the copy at that time had a lot of blue undertones instead of green undertones, which obviously does not match our school colors.” 

MSSD 14 administrators, being in charge of one of the oldest districts in Colorado, desire to have its history preserved, and they are trying to do so. “I wanted to continue to ensure that our school is a reflection of the incredible kids that we have, as well as celebrating the incredible traditions that we have had and continue to try to find a blend of the two,” Conrad said. “I want to make sure that folks feel reflected by the space around them. And I thought that this was a really good chance to do that.”

Many students feel that the school looks bland after the remodels that took place over the last few years. “One of the comments Student Council received on one of our pieces of feedback we sent out earlier this year was that students want to make the school feel less like a hospital,” Felix Banagale (10) said.