For the second consecutive year, Redwood’s yearbook, the Log, is being produced by a club as opposed to a class. Art teacher, Susie Maxwell, is running the yearbook club for the first time. With the yearbook’s consistent decline in enrollment, Tamalpais Union High School District board members decided to redirect funding and turn the yearbook class into a club.
“The yearbook enrollment had been declining year after year and not as many students were choosing the class. When we have less than 20 students selecting a particular class, we have to look [into] closing [it],” Principal Barnaby Payne said.
According to current yearbook Editor-in-Chief, Gisele Sary, only three students signed up for the club and collectively produced the entire yearbook in the 2022-2023 school year. Although eight students signed up to take the yearbook as a class this year, the small increase in enrollment still wasn’t enough for an official yearbook class.
Students working on the 2023-2024 yearbook this year will only meet once a week for 45 minutes. Junior Jenna Beauchamp joined the yearbook club this year for the first time and is worried the yearbook layout will be rushed with so few meeting times.
“The yearbook should definitely be a class because we need more time to get information right. Honestly, I’m surprised we only meet once a week. We will have to start meeting a few times a week later in the year to get it done,” Beauchamp said.
This year, 17 students are eager to create the yearbook in the club, compared to three students last year. Sary hopes the yearbook will convert back to a class in coming years.
“The yearbook is a really big publication and everyone looks forward to it every year. It’s around 350 pages, so it’s a lot of work. It covers the entire school year. Having the resources and time of it being a class would be really helpful in the future,” Sary said.
With all the new members, Sary is enthusiastic to have more people contribute, and take weight off of her shoulders.
“The people that signed up were eager to participate, which is good, and now we have more people to help out,” Sary said.
