LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — How do you create a school yearbook with almost no activities and many students staying home and learning remotely? That’s a challenge the yearbook staff at Las Vegas High School faced during this difficult year.
“Are we able to do it this year or not. We pulled through and we finished it.”
Cristhian Perez is proud of the yearbook he and his fellow Wildcat classmates were able to put together, documenting the weird year that is the 2021 school year at Las Vegas High School.
“For what we did. It was amazing. The cover is amazing. All the neat little things we did inside were amazing,” he said.
With the pandemic shutting down social circles around campus .and everyone doing remote learning for much of the year, there were doubts it could get done. But yearbook advisor Tasheena Greenawalt told her students to think outside the box.
RELATED STORY: Clark County School District seniors reflect on last day of school
“What started out as “Ms.! This year isn’t happening. What are we going to print?” turn into “This year is still happening” with television, movies, and government,” she said.
This included a focus on current events and pop culture. Surveys were sent to students through Google Forms and they were asked to send selfies to replace school portraits that didn’t happen. The yearbook staff allowed students to express themselves.
“Because it was a special year, you can use filters. If you want puppy ears, you got puppy ears,” Greenawalt said.
RELATED STORY: In-person Clark County School District graduation ceremonies start Wednesday
All this resulted in a yearbook that’s about half the size of last year's. A tough decision was made to not include athletics and other activities as they returned so late in the year. Greenawalt says she wanted to give seniors something before graduation.
“We’d rather have the seniors have the book in their hand. They already missed out on so much. We wanted to at least give them that book,” she said.
A yearbook Perez says will serve as a unique time capsule once the pandemic fades into history.
“Show your kids, this is what happened in school, and they’ll be like oh wow, this is all the stuff that happened,” he said.
Some high schools are waiting and planning to release their yearbook either in June or July.
