April 4, the final submission deadline for the 2024-2025 Arlington High School yearbook, is a highly anticipated day amongst the publishing classroom. The yearbook class, led by Ms. Hayman, has put in countless hours to ensure a thoughtful representation of what it’s like to be a student at AHS.
Yearbooks are expected for delivery six weeks after the final pages are approved for printing, according to the deadline provided by Balfour, the high school’s preferred publisher for over 24 years.
“We start planning as soon as the previous year’s book is done, so we start with the visual look, and what kind of vibe we want,” Ms.Hayman, Yearbook Adviser, said.
Although Hayman advises the class, final decisions fall upon the staff leads, Chloe Falk (Editor in Chief), Lukas Nations (Managing Editor), Kailey Bisson (Photo Editor), and Holly Michael (Fun Police). This offers an opportunity for the students to exercise valuable skills such as teamwork, time management, leadership, and communication, all while developing creative and technical abilities.
“I’m just the adviser, so I suggest things and I tell people why I think things are a good or bad idea, but ultimately it’s up to the students to make the call,” Hayman said.
While keeping the quality in mind, improving organization, and better planning, the staff have found the result to be more efficient and manageable compared to previous years. Since she has been on staff for four years, “I think we’ve been the most productive and on time for our deadlines than we’ve ever been,” Falk said.
“We have to plan accordingly, if you don’t and you just try to do everything last second, it gets very messy, you want it to look clean,” Amelia Potong, yearbook staff, said.
The publisher anticipates delivery within the first week of June. Students should expect to receive their books shortly thereafter.
“I try to have it here at least a day before we do distribution, so that we can look over it and make sure that we don’t have any problems that we need to fend off,” Hayman said.
The staff in the class agree with the additional work, time, and energy applied, the finished project is significantly more meaningful, as the result of hard work.
“I definitely feel like now that I know how hard everyone else worked the years before, the yearbook definitely means a lot more to me than what it used to,” Potong said.
