Explore Middle School recently painted its halways, thanks to the non-profit organization City Year. There are many mixed opinions about the murals. Some say it looks nice while others say they prefer it to be back to normal. 

Sixth graders were largely positive about the new paint job.

Sixth grader Oliva Arroyo said, “I like it because it represents the wolfpack, especially the left stairwell and 120, but not the entire floor painting.” Similarly, sixth grader Aayan Ghosh agreed. “It’s better, but with it being on only one part of the walls, it’s kind of weird,” he said.

Some teachers agree with the 6th graders. For example, Mr.Kraft said, “I think that the 3rd floor is my favorite, and the floor that I teach on is my favorite, and I’m a fan of the ‘silent wolf’ drawing on the left stairwell. I also like the mural in the cafeteria as it's cool.”

However, some students wished it was more school-matched with the Wolfpack colors like how Polina Sobolev said, “I think the entrance and cafeteria look nice, but the colors in the main stairwell (green and purple), are messy and don’t show our school colors. I like the second stairwell's design and colors, but I wish we saw that more in our school or it matched. Overall, I think the new beautifications are okay, but a bit unnecessary.”  

Seventh-grader Esnar Moquete agrees with Polina Sobolev, saying, “I think it looks good, but I don’t think it should be in this school because the colors seem a bit childish for middle schoolers.”

This anonymous student said, “The lunch room’s color scheme is not the best; the green and the blue go together, but adding purple is weird. If they wanted to make it work, they should've made it yellow. I like the first floor better than the lunchroom, but it's uneven and rough, and they left some painter's tape. The big stairwell's colors are better, but it’s sloppy, patchy, and uneven. The second floor green is unfair; we got green but not yellow or pink because blue and purple match, but green doesn't, so we should've added pink. The small stairwell I like the wolfpack colors but they should have done the same with the big one some spots aren't filled in. The third floor has the best color. I like the design near the second floor the wolfpack with all the colors.”

Other Highlights:

Anonymous: "In the beginning, I thought it was ugly, but I think it’s growing on me a bit."

Anonymous: "It’s okay but would've been much better in school colors."

Daniel Ellameh, 6th grade: "They’re good!"

Adriana Castillo, 6th grade: "I think it looks nice, but I prefer how the school originally looked."

Published to the Wolfpack Press, February 26, 2025.