In honor of Black History Month, the Black History Month committee decided to hold a door decorating contest. All doors will be judged and four winners will be picked based on all the classes who participate.

 This is the first year that the door decorating contest will be run. As of now, there are 10 participating classes, however, according to the head of the Door Decorating committee, Dr. Annette De Angelis, that number is growing.

“At first, we weren’t sure if many students wanted to take the lead, but now there’s quite a bit of competition with each other. Teachers and students seem to be peeking in to see other people’s doors to see what’s going on,” De Angelis said.

The inspirations for the doors must fit into four categories: creativity, history, theme (i.e., art, literature, music), and Black History around Central. Four student judges will be judging the doors based on color, design, medium, use of the space, audience appeal, and relevance to Black History Month.

“It’s all up to the students. In fact, we encouraged teachers not to buy supplies, [unless] the students who are participating in the decoration contest needed something,” De Angelis said.

However, students don’t seem to know that the contest is taking place. The Black History Month committee spread the word by sending a school-wide email regarding the contest, and sending teachers an email with specific instructions.

“I think teachers either genuinely forgot [to tell students] about it, or would rather not use a lot of class time to decorate a door,” said Katie Cantlon, a senior who wasn’t aware the contest was taking place.

As a whole, Cantlon believes that Black History Month is underappreciated at school, with not enough publicity or attention given to the events that go on at school to celebrate it.

“I’m hoping that students will take responsibility to contribute to Black History Month, because the one thing we don’t want to do is have this teacher-centered. And I want this to be the first of a tradition: that every year now we have the door decorating contest,” De Angelis said.

According to Cantlon, whether or not this will happen is up to the teachers and students. She believes it’s a good idea.

“The hallways tend to be a little bland and I think decorating a door would add color, and it also supports Black History Month,” Cantlon said.

The door decorating contest winners will be announced on Monday, Feb. 25.