By Hannah Katz
Yearbook Club, lead by biology teacher Melissa Ezpeleta, has been preparing for its second deadline, a 40-page spread due on Feb. 11, for months. The club has been hard at work since the beginning of the school year, meeting every Thursday in order to design pages, gather quotes and images, and to place the images into designated pages to make the yearbook appealing and fun for the masses of students that will eagerly flip through the book in August.
“I really think students will like this year’s yearbook,” said freshman Jill Trnka. “Good pictures were taken at the events.”
Every Thursday, the 18 person staff, each assigned 2-5 pages to complete, gathers in D110, with the rustling of snacks and the whirr of computers filling up the silence created by students who are hard at work. Over their shoulders, the computer screens are filled with pictures from basketball games, school plays, homecoming week, and more. Their ultimate goal is to find a way to place all the pictures on a page that looks professionally done and is something students will want to buy to remember their High School years and fits with a theme that carries throughout the entire yearbook.
“The theme is great,” said freshman Karleigh Tomasik. ”It’s definitely my favorite thing about the yearbook! It’s really modern.”
The theme of the yearbook was unanimously voted on by the club members. What We’re Made Of was chosen by the editors because it conveys a message of unity and school spirit, and the pages are filled with designs of geometric shapes and Batavia colors. The majority of yearbook staff believes that the students will love this design and the creative choices that the design staff made.
“It’s so fun taking pictures and putting them on your pages and eventually having everyone see your work!” said junior Jennifer Sykstus.
The final product of the yearbook is meant to be marketed to students, so every single step the staff takes has the student body in mind.
“It’s kind of difficult. You always have to ask yourself questions like ‘is someone on this page more than once?’ or ‘should we put a picture of a senior there instead of one of a freshman?’ It’s pretty difficult, but it’s also fun!” Sykstus says.
These decisions are time consuming, however, and when you work with strict deadlines that poses as a challenge. The yearbook staff isn’t concerned about their approaching their next deadline, however.
“I’m almost done with the pages due next week- just putting the finishing touches on them,” said Tomasik.
This was the same answer the majority of the yearbook staff had, all feeling prepared to take on the deadline. Yearbook adviser Melissa Ezpeleta has utmost faith in her staff, and says she will even reward them with pizza when they complete their next deadline.
“We are doing great on our deadlines! The members are working hard to create amazing pages,” said Ezpeleta, “We’ve been working really hard to put together a book that captures the memories of the school year. I hope everyone likes it!”