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Ms. Sami Dentel  holds up a copy of the new Pal-Mac Coloring Book.

DEC.5, 2025— Anew colorful artistic effort is bringing some more brightness to the classroom. The District is proud to announce the release of the first-ever Pal-Mac Coloring Book.

The book features 31 pages of original Pal-Mac themed artwork from several students and staff members across all four school buildings. Many of the drawings include references to the District’s Mission, Vision, and Core Values (MVCV), as well as other positive messages meant to promote encouragement.

The books will be available to every student in grades K-8, with copies also made available to students in grades 9-12.

Middle School Art Teacher Ms. Sami Dentel coordinated the entire effort, which started at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, which was her first as a teacher. The 2020 Pal-Mac grad says Superintendent Dr. Bob Ike approached her with the idea, which at the time, provided a blank canvas of its own.

“I think initially, my idea was to curate all the pages myself,” Dentel said. “And then as I got through my first year of teaching, I thought it was best to have the students involved because it's Pal-Mac and we like to have our students involved a lot.”

To get students involved, Ms.Dentel turned the opportunity into a tiny competition. She reached out to the other art teachers in the District, who then each asked interested students to submit their work. Dentel and her fellow teachers then reviewed the submissions, but her work was far from over.

Dentel said she spent roughly a month over the 2025 summer break digitizing the chosen drawings. Using her iPad, Dentel traced over the original artwork in Canva and then created borders around the pieces.

“It's been really cool just to see the final product because I've seen it only with the students' submissions, in their own pencil drawings,” Dentel said. “And then to see it, how I digitized it and then put it together is really cool.I just keep going through it.”

For Dentel, the coloring book is just part of a continued effort to both share student artwork, and expand access to

resources for every student. She previously led a t-shirt design and distribution campaign for the 2025 Homecoming weekend as part of the Middle School Art Club. In that effort, every student in the District received a specially-designed red Pal-Mac shirt. Dentel hopes the coloring book can bring the same sense of unity as the t-shirts have, while also sharing excitement at seeing how the books are filled out among the different grades.

The coloring book rollout began at the beginning of December, with extra copies being made available at the District Office, as well. While it’s still early, Dentel says she hopes to make the books a new tradition, but she also has other student-contributed project ideas on the horizon.

“I would love to make [a book] every year,” Dentel said. “Who knows if that's a possibility. I just hope everyone enjoys coloring.”

Dr. Ike said "Pal-Mac has many talented students and staff members and the coloring book was an opportunity to showcase those talents and provide a locally-produced and cost-effective mindfulness resource for students and families."