By Ananya Sharma, Staff Writer
Before homecoming weekend, students and teachers alike worked together to decorate the halls. Students were involved in the creative process and helped come up with ideas on how to decorate. They also were the ones who made the decorations and put them up.
A few weeks ago, announcements were sent out on Canvas for the first meeting. During this meeting, students planned out how to decorate their grade’s designated hallways. They discussed which types of decorations to put up and the overall layout. The theme was the four seasons of the year for the four different grades. Freshmen were spring, sophomores were fall, juniors were winter, and seniors were summer. According to Mrs. Dulce Souidi, the sophomore class sponsor, “The students were the ones who came up with the ideas, since it was their hallways they were decorating and they should be involved in these things.”
But this year there was one major problem: barely anyone showed up. Mrs. Souidi said, “During the first information meeting for the sophomore class this year, only seven came. But two kids left at the beginning, so we ended up with only five students.”
This was a big change from last year. Mrs. Souidi recalls that last year, “students were excited and happy to be part of school activities. I had a lot of students participate during the homecoming decoration last year.” This could be because students had just gotten back from online school and were more excited for school activities.
Over the course of the next few sophomore meetings, only one person showed up, and the other classes faced similar situations. Homecoming week was getting closer, but there was still a lack of decorators. There was also a problem regarding the supplies. Teachers had to resort to using left over supplies they found in their classrooms.
The week prior to homecoming week, the situation was still looking bleak, so Mrs. Souidi sent out one last announcement. To her surprise, this time many students showed up to help! Around 22 students were helping decorate the sophomore hallway, and more students helped with the other classes.
Eliana Reyes, Sharon Okojie, and Erin Kim were freshmen who were involved in hallway decorating. Sharon commented “There were different groups of people who were doing different things. One group of people was working on the mural, and we were working on the cutouts that you put your heads in.” She expressed that she thought it was a challenging but fun experience. Eliana said, “I would do it again next year.”
On October 3, the school announced that the winning class of this year’s hallway decorating was the Class of 2026. This is the first time since 2013 that a freshman class has won this competition, which is a big change since the usual winner is the Senior class.
Despite the challenges that came with decorating for homecoming this year, the decorations ended up looking great, and students had a lot of fun.