A Panther Valley High School parent has received permission to paint hallways inside the school, after she said school officials gave false reasons why she could not.

The school board voted Thursday night to allow Angela Krapf and a group of volunteers to paint tile walls inside the school on an upcoming weekend, with all of the volunteers having to sign a waiver to work inside the building.

Krapf, whose husband is a school board member, said she wanted to help improve the appearance of the school for the students. She wants to repaint sections of the school where the paint is peeling in order to match the new junior high wing, which opened in 2015.

“These kids and staff are coming into a building which looks like it’s falling apart and it’s not fair,” she said.

Krapf made her case to the public in a Facebook post that was widely shared among parents in the district. Then she attended Thursday’s meeting with a group of parents there to support her.

Before Krapf had a chance to address the board Thursday night, board President Gary Porembo said the board decided that she would be allowed to paint.

“There have been a lot of rumors going around about painting of our high school. Right now, we have the paint, thank you to Angela, we will be painting,” he said.

Krapf said she first asked the board to paint the hallway in 2018. She said it was scheduled to take place over Christmas break, but the district didn’t provide her with paint.

In the meantime, she contacted the school about numerous issues including peeling paint, damaged ceiling tiles and damaged vents. She said she contacted the district multiple times about the issues in the building.

“I went to orientation this year. I’ve never been to Panther Valley, I didn’t go here, and I took the tour and I wanted to cry,” Krapf said.

This summer she contacted the district again about the paint. She said an administrator told her that the board committee, which oversees buildings and grounds, didn’t want to spend money on paint. She said she was told it would cost $7,000 to buy the paint, then $2,000.

Krapf said she recently purchased paint from two stores who gave her a discount because it was for a school. In all, she spent about $460, which she says should take care of most of the work.

She held a bake sale and raised $208, but is still looking for more donations.

The district’s maintenance supervisor, George Krajnak, said on Friday that he came up with an estimate of $2,300. That was based on buying enough paint to cover 6,800 sq. ft. of tile in the hallways. Krajnak said painting tile requires a special paint and primer, which combined costs $100 per gallon. A gallon covers 300 sq. ft.

Krajnak said that the district has two maintenance workers over the summer with a large number of issues to address. He said if the district had tens of thousands to spend on contractors each summer, which they do not, more issues would be addressed.

Krajnak said he has no opposition to volunteers painting in the school on a weekend.

Even though Porembo said she had permission to paint in the school, Krapf wanted an official vote so there was no confusion.

“I just want no backsies this time. That’s it,” she said.

Porembo said Krapf should work with the superintendent and high school principal to come up with a time when students aren’t in the school, so they can paint. Porembo also stressed that volunteers must sign a waiver to work in the building.

They are tentatively scheduled to paint over Labor Day weekend.