Last year’s yearbook did not come out in September like it usually does. The reason behind such a delay is the same one a lot of other yearbooks wouldn’t be coming out when they were originally planned to, that being lockdown. The yearbooks that were supposed to be coming out in September will end up coming out this January instead of it’s original July release date.

According to Yearbook Teacher and Adviser Ms. Michelle Locke, if everything goes as planned and there are no more interruptions, people who order yearbooks this year will be getting them on their usual release schedule.  

Schools all over the country were closed down for the first time in spring of 2020. That was the beginning of what was going to be a long and hard challenge for those working on their school’s yearbook. From the abrupt shutdown of schools to last year’s changing schedules, the pandemic presented obstacles that yearbook editors had to find a creative way around it. Usually here at BBCHS there’s this bond that is created amongst the staff of the yearbook. This makes working with each other a lot easier whether it’s a big staff or a small staff. The staff last year was of substantial size; however, as the months went on and all the changes in the schedule as well as release happened, the staff slowly got smaller. 

The shutdown of schools is something that changed the look of something that has been around for a long time. And the contents in the book will look a lot different from those of years past. The pages were usually filled with special moments where everyone was in school together. Dances, clubs, sports, the look of that changed when social distancing became a thing. Not only did all of those page spreads change for our yearbook, but for schools thousands of miles away as well. According to SPLC, teachers in New York had a day before the shutdown of schools, and teachers had nothing more than a day to get everything ready.

Everything changed suddenly, and a lot of thought had to be put into what would fill the pages of the book when everything had pretty much been cancelled.  As stated by SPLC, some yearbook pages now focused on the dangerous essential jobs that some students had and what students were doing when they had so much extra time.

If we were to go into remote learning due to rising number of COVID cases, then yearbook spreads will go back to how it was last year. Locke is hopeful that if we were to go into lockdown, the yearbook staff will have gotten enough to work with. 

Not only did the spreads change, but the way students and teachers worked on the yearbook changed as well. It wasn’t always easy getting things done at home, and some couldn’t do things at all. SPLC mentioned that a yearbook adviser from a high school in Texas worked hours on end in her car so she could get into the school’s server to actually complete the yearbook. However, that sort of dedication isn’t always guaranteed. Especially when a lot of people are stuck at home with no sense of motivation, that was something that yearbook staff really struggled with. Locke stated, “The students that were lacking motivation and not seeing them it was hard to hold them accountable.”

Hope is strong this year for both a more traditional school year and a traditional yearbook filled with fond memories for years to come.