By Ken Rowe

Burlingame High School students and faculty members were being polled yesterday in an effort to help settle the great WPA art debate on campus.

The controversy is centered on a massive oil-on-canvas mural hanging in the school's main hallway above the entrances to the auditorium.

The work was wrought By Frederick Alexander Pawla, a former San Matean, on a Works Progress Administration (WPA) commission during the Great Depression.

Since the school's interior is being redecorated, some students have been campaigning to get the mural, which they consider to be a great depression all by itself, relocated to some other area in the school.

Students have been dividing themselves into the “Ins” and the “Outs,” those in favor of the status quo and those in favor of relocating the mural.

Prudence Shepherd, a junior heading the BHS Hall Beautification Committee calls herself a leader of the “Outs”.

Ms. Shepard said like-minded students want to relocate the California's scenic mural and use the space to hang student-crafted graphics, which they feel will be more in keeping with the new hallway decor.

"We're not anti-historical, or anything, we just feel the mural could be better appreciated someplace else," she said.

One of the “ins”, Everett Hoffman Jr., a junior, said simply, "it's not exactly artistic, but I think it's a part of Burlingame High School."

Principal Richard Williams said he likes the mural but feels it might be safer (it has half a dozen small punctures and some scratches) in another location, where it could not be reached so easily, perhaps on a high wall in the cafeteria.

Williams said today’s student-faculty poll will be a "great factor" in what happens to the mural, but the final decision on its fate may go to the district's superintendent or board.

It is possible, he said, that the painting could be loaned out to some other public building.

The mural is owned by the U.S. Treasury Department on loan to Burlingame.

Several civic, art and historical groups from outside the school have indicated they feel that the Pawla painting should continue to be displayed where it is presently hung. The Greco-Spanish style school was built in 1922; the cafeteria was built in 1958. “Ins” are calling the mural "a fine example of WPA art." To the “outs” the painting is "inartistic, depressing."