Van Nuys : Rotary Club ‘Adopts’ Anatola Elementary

Thirty years after the classrooms at Anatola Elementary School were last painted, the Van Nuys Rotary Club figured it was time to step in.

So the 50-member chapter “adopted” the Van Nuys school, using the skills of each member to benefit Anatola.

The roofer plans to fix the school’s roof. The accountants and lawyers will attend Career Day. And between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday, everyone will paint.

“We’ve done this two or three times before,” said Rotarian Rocky Star. “And the first time we painted a month ago, it took like four coats to cover the walls because they sucked all the paint right up.”

During the Anatola-Rotary work party Saturday, club members will not only paint an abandoned classroom for conversion into a computer lab, they will wire the computers and install security to protect them.

Individual members of the Rotary Club have donated or upgraded between five and 10 computers for Anatola and expect to do more in the coming years, Star explained, including re-creating a garden space for the 400-pupil school.

“There are so many projects the school has, we don’t know where to start,” Star said.

It’s not that Anatola is the neediest school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, he said. Anatola, which is designated as a LEARN and Los Angeles Systemic Initiative school, is relatively well off. But all schools need at least a little help, Star said.

“LAUSD just doesn’t have the money” for some maintenance and upkeep, he said.

Star’s wife, Annette, an Anatola teacher, said every effort helps the school modernize and grow. The paint and computers “are just better for the kids.”

For information, call the Van Nuys Rotary Club at (818) 888-0880.