Fright Night Freshmen get spooky for spirit week
October 16, 2015
Glen Rock schools were closed for students on Monday, Oct. 12, but the freshman class did not take the day off. The class spent its Columbus Day decorating its homecoming hallway to fit its theme as the Fright Night Freshmen.
The Class of 2019 voted for the theme during freshmen orientation. The other options were Fantasy Freshmen or Funky Freshman.
Unlike the upperclassmen, the freshmen did not have time to plan for their hallway over the summer. The freshmen chose their theme at the beginning of the school year and started to accumulate resources two weeks ago. But, they do have the same amount of time as the other grades to physically decorate the hallway, which is usually between 3 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.
“It was all a very rushed process,” said Catherine ‘Cat’ Merkle, the freshman class president. “I think we did a pretty good job considering the time.”
Around 40 freshmen showed up to help decorate the hallway on Monday.
“I think, first and foremost, that they’re new to the school, so all the upperclassmen have been through it and they understand the time-frame of what needs to go,” said Mr. Brian Montalbano, the freshman class co-adviser and Latin teacher. “For the freshmen, we had to elect officers who would then lead the charge with this, so it took us the time to get those situated. Then, we could get that ball rolling as well.”
“Basically, it was Halloween-themed, so it was really easy to get decorations and get ideas because it’s Halloween time,” Merkle said.
Merkle’s vision was to have the hallway be scarier than Halloween. She wanted more zombies and fewer pumpkins.
The hallway consisted of caution tape, ghosts made out of garbage bags, gravestones on lockers, spider webs on the ceiling and a stuffed animal graveyard. The graveyard comprised ripped stuffed animals that were placed over lockers in small jail cells.
Montalbano believes the freshman class is very proactive with a lot of good ideas and energy.
Montalbano plans to get “integrated in the school and get to know the student body a little better” because this is only his second year teaching in Glen Rock.
As a Latin teacher, he only sees a limited number of students in the school. As the class adviser, though, he hopes to interact with a larger community of students.