Longwood elementary gets custom mural honoring teachers during appreciation week

Longwood Elementary School turned Teacher Appreciation Week into something students and staff will see every day: a custom mural on the campus at 840 Orange Ave. Florida Paints teamed up with Danielle Lazala, owner of DML Paintings, to create the piece as a visible tribute to the educators at the PK-5 school.

The mural landed during Teacher Appreciation Week, which ran May 4-8, with National Teacher Day on Tuesday, May 5. At a school with about 612 students and roughly 41 full-time teachers, the project offered a public thank-you in a setting where recognition is often limited to assemblies, signs or social media posts. The mural was designed to be more than decoration. It was meant to become part of the school’s identity, a lasting marker of gratitude for the teachers who shape the campus each day.

The collaboration also showed how local businesses and artists can step into civic life when schools want something more permanent than a one-time celebration. Florida Paints supplied high-performance exterior products, a practical choice in Florida’s heat and humidity. DML Paintings handled the artistic design and execution. Lazala, a multidisciplinary self-taught Dominican artist based in Florida, founded DML Paintings in 2017 after studying and working in psychology, a background she says informs her sense of color, composition and emotional impact.

The mural fits into a broader local pattern of public investment in shared spaces. The City of Longwood expanded its Public Art Program in 2023 to improve access to art and add color, vibrancy and character to the built environment, and the school district has been rated an A district by the Florida Department of Education since 1999. Longwood Elementary has also used public appreciation efforts before, which suggests the mural was not an isolated gesture but part of an existing culture of recognizing educators in visible ways.

For Seminole County, the project carries both practical and symbolic weight. It gives Longwood Elementary a stronger visual identity, reinforces campus pride and sends a message that teachers matter outside the classroom too. In a year when schools continue to look for ways to support staff, the wall on Orange Ave. became a public statement that gratitude can be built into the school itself.