Cancellations, masks, and fewer staff make publications a challenge

This year has been a new sort of challenge for the yearbook and newspaper team because of the changes and roadblocks we’ve had to deal with.

A major difference between last year and this year is our new adviser, John Staber. Connie King, our previous adviser, held her position for a little over 15 years. Despite being new to the position, Staber has been on top of the Growl and yearbook since the start of the school year. He has pushed us to be more diligent, especially with writing articles and taking pictures.

Because of the staff's busy schedules, covering events is normally a challenge. However, this year due to COVID-19, cancellations have made attending events even more challenging.

The most significant cancellation to happen this year was Homecoming. During a normal year, we dedicate six pages to all of the events that happen during Homecoming week; however, this year many events were cancelled so we may have to cut down on the pages.

Additionally, the necessary but frustrating challenge of being in school only two or three days each week during this school year has made publications difficult.

While a lot of us would agree that having a few “off” days each week is really nice, the cohorts make it difficult for us to include Cohort B students. Generally, we call students down during the first block for interviews to add to our articles. This year, we are having a hard time including Cohort B students because we are all here on Cohort A days.

In conjunction with the newspaper, we try to include each student at least three times in the yearbook, and the way we tally that is by tagging who we see in pictures. Masks make identifying students in pictures a difficult task. We have been excelling at this aspect so far this school year; however, I am a little worried about this issue later in the year.

We also have a much smaller staff this year, five in person and three online. During a normal year we would have around 15 students in class every day. While the difference is substantial, we are still getting the work done.

Despite the setbacks that have been thrown at us this year, I’m really proud of our team and how much we have accomplished in such a short period of time.