Each year at Greenbrier East students in their fifth-period classes compete against one another in a Christmas door decorating contest. The top three places are announced over the intercom. Students and teachers alike take pride in this contest. For example, English teacher Mindy Smith’s door took three students four class periods to complete. The people in charge of the contest are special education teachers Jonathan Madera and Amy Nutter.
Who judges the doors? This year it was board office members Rick Parker and Andrew Utterback. According to Madera, the decorated doors are always judged on the following criteria:
- craftmanship/creativity
- completeness
- originality
- Christmas theme communicated well
However, special bonus points were awarded this year for including Greenbrier County history, culture, or landmarks, and the first-place doors belonged to the library and science teacher Shane Hanna, whose class received a pizza party. The second-place winner was engineering teacher Kevin Warfield’s class, who earned slushies. Finally, the third-place winners were the classes of Amy Nutter and English teacher Larry Smead (Ms. Peyatt’s semester substitute). These classes received cookies and milk.
When asked roughly how long it takes to decorate the doors, Madera said “It all depends on the door, the teacher, and the class. It could be one day or two weeks.” The contest has been going on for 3 years counting this year. “Thank you for decorating doors!” Madera said. “It just makes the school awesome!”
