Lots of effort and planning go into making a publication, whether that be research and gathering information or creating layouts. With around 250 pages in the yearbook that must be completed by Spring Break, a lot of accountability must be taken to ensure that publications are done on time and to the best of one’s ability. While the newspaper has Journalism, a class dedicated to writing, editing, and layout, the yearbook has no such class to work on the publication.
At Bernards, Yearbook is a club that students can take from Freshman to Senior year. The yearbook requires immense effort and discipline to ensure deadlines are met, and the yearbook is completed in time for the end of the year. Undertakings such as the newspaper and yearbook are deadline-driven programs that are reliant on the staff to finish their work by the deadlines given.
“With a class, staffers will actually be able to learn from the advisors and upperclassmen, page deadlines would be met, and most importantly, the book will arrive at the end of the year,” said Jessica Fu ‘26.
Yearbook should be a class at BHS because it will help increase productivity and work. Many students must do work during their lunch period or at home to ensure that the yearbook pages are completed by the deadlines. Further, having a yearbook class would help hold students accountable for doing their work by the deadlines and hopefully increase school participation.
“As a senior editor this year who had to balance applying to college, my rigorous AP coursework, and other extracurriculars, said Jessica Fu ‘26, “it was hard to find the time for yearbook and manage my load, especially when my schoolwork and college applications came first.”
As of now Yearbook is made up of a staff of around ten kids who consistently show up, with the majority of participants being seniors and freshmen. With the club only meeting during lunches and there being no consequences if work is not completed by deadlines, it is easy for deadlines to slip through the cracks.
“There’s accountability when you have a class for something. And I have you as students, and you, we can set deadlines, and we can work together, and there’s grades associated with the production of things,” said Ms. Hunkele, Yearbook and Journalism advisor.
With Yearbook being a club, students must dedicate their own time to work on the book, whether that be after school, lunch periods, or during study hall. With the structure of a class, it would be drastically easier to manage a staff and meet deadlines.
“[Ms. Hunkele and I] go out and look at–when we go to conferences–all of these other books, and they’re beautiful, and we know we have the talent to do so much more, but all of those books we look at, all of those examples, are teachers and advisors that have a class that just deals with yearbook,” said Ms. O’Brien, an advisor for Yearbook club, “So I think we are limited in what we can do because we just don’t, we physically do not have the time or the, or the staff
The newspaper is successful due to there being a class dedicated to writing, editing, and creating layouts for the paper. A yearbook is a record of a school year, encompassing all of the unique memories, trends, and people that attend this school and make it what it is. However, if the Yearbook is to continue to make these amazing time capsules and excel in their work, there must be a class to foster this growth.
