The "Arrival of the Yearbook: Middle School Edition" Story

The 2013 Yearbook: Red tie-dye cover

It was an ordinary day.  And, the Yearbooks have been distributed!  For the 14th year I have been the advisor, designer, photog and just about everything else for the yearbook at the  Manheim Township Middle School, located in Neffsville, PA.  I was the advisor to the high school yearbook for 31 years prior to that and when I retired from teaching in 1999, I asked the high school principal if I could continue as the advisor to the yearbook, even though I no longer taught at the school.  He told me he preferred to have an in-house advisor if he could find one.  The next day Bob, the middle school principal, called me and asked me if I was interested in doing the middle school yearbook.  He had heard that I wasn't going to continue to do the high school book, so he thought maybe I would want to do the yearbook at his school.  "How much can you afford to pay me to do the book?" I asked him.  He responded with, "Tell me how much you want and I'll tell you if we can afford it."  After doing some figuring I gave him a price.  I had to take into consideration that I would have to do everything on the book, but it was only 88 pages, or approximately 1/3 the size of the high school book and there were only three grades in the middle school in comparison to the four in the high school, but I did have 31 years of experience.  He accepted the price immediately and I had a new job.  He even wanted me to sign a 3-year contract.  I was back in business!  Over the years I tried to make a few changes each year, but with only 88 pages, there weren't many changes that could be made.  Naturally the cover was different and I tried to have a different theme each year, but was somewhat confined by the fact that over 65 pages were for class photos, teacher photos, club and organization photos and athletic team photos.  Students in the middle school enjoyed the baby photos from past yearbooks so I also kept a few pages for them.  The rest were filled with questionnaire information and candid photos.  Most years I had students design the cover, but recently the students have lost interest in participating.  This year's book featured a cover designed by Jostens Yearbook Company.  I had the Middle School Office look at samples and they helped pick the design for the cover.  Two years ago, because of budgetary cuts, many of the club sponsors were eliminated so I had fewer clubs to photograph this year.  I spent many hours at the school taking candid shots of students in classes as well as in the hall during class breaks.  Then I had the usually office staff, custodians, administration, guidance staff and cafeteria staff to photograph.  Many times I would arrive at the school and too many would be absent from a photo, so I would have to return at a later date.  Then this year Manheim Township School District opened an intermediate school and now there are only two grades in the middle school book which was reduced to 56 pages.  Well, today I helped with the distribution of the books and the sales of excess books.  The book sold for $19 which isn't too bad for a hard-cover book.  Book has been printed by Jostens for quite some time now and the advisor has become a good friend and knows how I like to operate.  He visits me once to pick up the cover design and one time help me with the page design.  Everything is done online now and if I have everything ready the day he comes I can just about complete the entire book in a day.  Nothing like my high school days when it would take days and days to complete one section of the book.  All that's left now for me to do is submit my bill and wait on the check.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Photo I took for the title page

Photo of the stairwell in the school