Madeline Khoo

Classrooms all around campus have been decorated festively in light of the first year of the Deck the Halls competition. “Especially in December It’s so hard. Everyone wants to be on break, everyone’s burnt out teachers, students,” Mrs. Novy said. “So like, why not make it a little more festive?”

As the holiday season approaches, teachers all around campus have been working hard to turn the campus into a festive and lighthearted place for students. This year, the school is hosting a competition called “Deck the Quads” where each quad in Ayala will be judged based on their decorations and creativity. 

For the past few years, there have been competitions among teachers in their respective departments on door decorations. However this year, Deck the Quads will unite each department together to compete against other quads on decorations not only classroom doors, but outside as well. Students will began voting on Monday and the polling will close on Wednesday. 

“We opened it up to the whole quad so if staff wants to go crazy and throw Christmas lights on the palm trees in their quad or the pillars in their quad, they can,” English 10 and AP English 11 teacher Mrs. Mariana Jolly said. “It’s completely up to them. I know some quads are decorating doors and others are doing a mixture of both.”

Deck the Quads began last Monday and will end on Thursday, the last day of finals. This is also the first year that the contest will happen. Mrs. Jolly and Mrs. Christina Hofstetter, members of Ayala’s school culture committee, are the teachers organizing the competition. Both Mrs. Jolly and Mrs. Hofstetter decided to start the competition this year as a way to lift student and staff spirits during finals. 

“It’s the end of the semester and we’re all really tired, so why not have a little holiday sparkle in the quad as we walk out?” Jolly said. 

Teachers are participating by decorating their classroom doors and even working with each other in their departments to add elements to the quads, such as string lights and bows. 

“Half my classes cut out their hand print and they did a math problem on them which counted as the fire or the flame and then the other half of my class did hand prints on green paper which counted as the wreath,” AP Statistics teacher Mrs. Brielle Novy said. “I basically have a fake fireplace with a wreath hanging above the fireplace and I have a stocking out there hanging above my big fireplace.”

Along with brightening the atmosphere around campus, Deck the Quads also serves as a way for staff to participate in a friendly, but passionate competition against each other. 

“[Within] our staff, we’re very competitive so we always want to be first at everything we do at Ruben S. Ayala High School,” Jolly said. 

While some teachers are new to participating in decor contests around campus, others are returning contestants who are hoping to take home victory this year. 

“You have to have lots of storage space when it comes to decorating doors because you have to store these things for 11 months out of the year,” Novy said. “I decorate every year. I really hope I win, I’ve never won yet.”

Students around campus have also been noticing the decorations and gaining preferences to which quads have the best decorations. 

“I like the F quad the best,” Brandon Jimenez (12) said. “The whole area just feels really festive and gets me excited for Christmas.”

This year, students will decide which quad will gain the title of the best decorated here at Ayala. Students are able to vote here.