Yearbook adjusts to changes

By TOM LAVENTURE

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Hurley — The Hurley K-12 School annual yearbook staff are using some innovation to create a meaningful depiction of an unusual year amidst changes during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are having an interesting time navigating the yearbook this year,” said Shannon Peterson, a high school English teacher at Hurley K-12 School, who also serves as the faculty advisor for the yearbook committee and the school chapter of the National Honor Society. “So we’re figuring that out.”

The yearbook staff spend much of the fall semester gathering information and photographs for the yearbook layout that is due to the printer in March, she said. That meant the 2019-20 yearbook was already completed for the printer at the time in-school classes ceased and virtual learning started in March 2020.

The Hurley K-12 School has been holding in-school learning for the entire fall semester and spring semester so far for the 2020-21 school year, Peterson said. But the yearbook will still be very different this year with all the fall event cancellations and the sports events with no fans.

“Last year’s spring sports are in the yearbook the following year,” Peterson said.

This year there aren’t going to be pages that are normally dedicated to the prom and other dances, club meetings and events, and other extracurricular activities that were canceled, she said. Instead the yearbook crew got creative with a frontline workers page and a face covering page, and all the sports photos show players and coaches wearing masks, she said.

“It’s just such a strange yearbook this year,” Peterson said. “They were doing the ‘senior superlative’ page with things like the ‘best smile’ and all that and they have to go outside for the photos (because of the pandemic rules).”

I think we’re very lucky that we’re still in session and we were able to have sports. It will be just a little bit different. We could still let one kid into the games to take pictures. 

The pictures are different and some of the pages will be different but for the most part we’ll be able to have a relatively normal yearbook. 

Hurley has a spring yearbook delivery and so all the work was done and submitted by the end of March. Everything was pretty much completed and the work is done digitally and so the remaining work was able to be completed and submitted by the end of March. It was okay but it was like covid didn’t exist because it started after the book was submitted. 

As the faculty advisor to the National Honor Society chapter, Peterson said the students were not able to hold their spring banquet. Instead they are holding an induction ceremony.

The Honor Society students normally volunteer at many events including the Brian Nasi Memorial Heart Run-Walk, and the Sisu Ski Festival that were canceled or virtual this year, she said. The students also normally conduct summer school tours which weren’t allowed to happen last year, she said.

“So it’s like all of our volunteer projects haven’t happened,” Peterson said. “So we’re looking to try and do something.”

To help make up for the lack of a prom and dances the students are including a formal dress up day during spirit week prior to the winter homecoming. The staff and students can’t hold the annual scrub basketball game during a pep assembly but have created a modified version that allows players to perform their basketball skills.

These should also make good photos for the yearbook, she said.