Every May, students flip through a nearly 600-page hardbound book documenting a full year of their lives. What most of these students don’t know is that the entire thing was finished just weeks before — assembled before spring break and sent to the printer so it could arrive by May.
“I wish more people understood how much work goes into a yearbook. We don’t just put words on a page — everything is so meticulously edited. By the time a page is finished, about six people have looked over it,” photo editor senior Claire McCulloch said.
The staff of nearly 50 is organized into a hierarchy of editors, section leads, and reporters, but every single person carries the same baseline workload.
“Every single person has the same responsibilities. Those extra jobs — section editor, copy editor, whatever it is — are almost extra responsibilities on top of your normal yearbook responsibilities,” Editor-in-Chief senior Caitlyn Crouch said.
On top of building their own spreads from scratch, staffers are required to show up to school events each month with a camera. Photos get uploaded to a shared server for anyone to pull from, but most never make the cut. Every image that passes inspection has been cleared by at least one of three photo editors against strict standards.
“Every photo has to face toward the center of the page, there can’t be any blurry shots, and we try to make sure we’re getting a variety of grades. Every single photo in the book has been looked at — at least once, if not more,” McCulloch said.
Written text gets the same treatment. Stories are edited line by line, checked against AP Style, and a set of internal house rules that the editors built themselves.
“I print stories out and go through them. I check grammar, content, and make sure it’s not just filler — sometimes there’s no real content, and it’s obvious. I usually have them fix the major issues first, then I go in and edit everything myself,” Crouch said.
Deadlines are non-negotiable. The book is printed in 16-page sections, so every group of pages has to be finished together before the printer moves forward. To protect against disaster, editors hand staffers internal deadlines set weeks before the real ones.
“We don’t tell them the real deadlines — we give earlier ones, like three or four weeks earlier. If we miss a [print] deadline, it’s the end of everything. It can cost money, and it’s a huge deal,” Crouch said.
Even with those buffers, the final stretch is grueling. A group of editors stayed until 1 a.m. finishing the index, came back the next morning at 9 a.m., and worked through until 2 a.m. before submitting the final book. For newer staffers getting their first taste of the process, it’s a steep climb, but one worth making.
“As a freshman, my first spread was by myself — it was JV cheer, and I didn’t really know what I was doing yet. But, it’s really rewarding when you’re finally getting it right,” reporter freshman Reese Mattison said.
The yearbooks will be handed out on May 1st in the yearbook classroom for everyone who ordered one during back-to-school sign-up.
“It gets stressful, but every single photo, every single word — it’s all really intentional. Multiple people look at every page. I just wish more people knew that,” McCulloch said.
