I'm in charge of creating a yearbook for our elementary school. Looking for advice from other teachers who have done this. Helpful tips, prices,companies, etc? Thanks
I was the yearbook advisor at my school, and we have used Jostens for as long as I can remember. You can do the entire book online, and the quality is great.
I designed the yearbook this year for my school! It was a blast. We used Herf Jones, which was pretty cheap and great quality! We had a full color yearbook with hard cover, and only had to charge $20 per book to make a profit!
I did mine this year and we use Barksdale. It was 44 pages, all in color, soft cover, and cost $12.60 per copy (36 pages would have been about $11.50). Their software was pretty easy to learn and customer support was generally good. I had a rep assigned to me but if he didn't get back to me within 24 hours there was another rep I would contact and she got in touch with me within hours. I think they're based out of PA and I have no idea if they're country wide or just here in PA. As far as tips: as you get photos organize them into folders on your computer. So for example I had folders for field trips, faculty, clubs, Halloween, holiday events, concerts, and so on. Anything you think you may make a separate page for, make a folder for it. And then of course have lots of general candids to use as well as not all photos will fall into a specific category. If you can't be at an event to take the photos, try to get someone to do it for you. I was complimented on the fact that this year's yearbook really covered the year and so many of our special events. I also made sure that every 5th grader had a candid photo of some sort in the book (our school is 1st through 5th). I had each 5th grade teacher take a look at the pages I had done when I was about 3/4th done and mark off on a class list any kid I didn't have a photo of. Then either that teacher or I made sure to get a photo of that missing student to be able to add in. We had 117 5th graders so needless to say this took some time but to me it was worth it. It's their "senior" year and I felt it important that they should find themselves in the book someplace other than their picture on the class page. Oh, and periodically back up all your photos on a flash drive. If something happens to your computer you don't want to have all your photos be lost and have to get reorganized. If you're going to accept cash payments then be prepared for claims of "I ordered a yearbook but didn't get one" and you'll have no record of the order but mom will insist she sent the money in and her child should have a book. I'll be doing the money collection/receipt of payment a bit different next year to help prevent these issues. But if your school will go for it, say checks only for payments. We can't do it due to past issues with bounced checks costing us bank fees or I'd definitely do checks only. If you're doing cash, feel free to PM me in the fall and I'll forward you the letter I plan to give to teachers on how the money collection and proof of payment will go. I'd send it to you now but it's on my school laptop which I won't have returned to me until the school year resumes.
Our school used Balfour this year and it came out really nice! The coolest part was that everything is in color! It cost the kids $15. It was also done online.
