On Halloween, English teacher Ms. Gelinas organized  the 16th annual staff Costume Contest at PA. 

With students and staff voting, the Best Individual costume went to English teacher Mrs. LeComte for the fourth consecutive year. 

“It brings me joy that students love my creations,” said LeComte. “I absolutely love dress-up, and all together, it took me about two hours to get ready with my makeup, hair, and costume.”

The specific theme this year was television/movie characters, and the winner of this category was foreign language Ms. Sheehan, making this her third year as a winner. She dressed as Max Mayfield from the Netflix original show “Stranger Things”. 

“I think this is a super fun event every year to show school spirit, whether you win or not,” said Ms. Sheehan. “I will definitely be doing it again next year.”  

Other categories this year included Best Costume that ties in with job/role, which was won by foreign language Ms. Randal, and the PA Administrative Team won Best Group costume, dressing as the characters for the movie “Toy Story”.

“[PA Admin] are always creative,” Ms. Gelinas said. “And I think everybody gets excited when they gets involved.”

Ms. Gelinas believes the contest was a success but said she wasn’t surprised by the results. “After doing it for so many years, it becomes ‘predictable,’ but never disappointing,” she said.  

She added that the chances are high for a student contest to begin within the next few years.

“Last year was the first year we did the voting digitally, making the whole experience easier and more available to all the students and staff,” said Ms. Gelinas. Continuing this voting method could make a student contest more possible. 

Over the years, the contest has grown schoolwide. “There was nothing quite like it beforehand,” said Ms. Gelinas. “I started this contest as a way to build more of a community within the school and add some school spirit, and it’s become quite a tradition here.”