Go Behind Scenes Of Legacy Staff
Staff Starts Book In Summer, Finishes In May
Legacy yearbook is a student-run publication class led by two student editors: senior Selena Escutia and junior Sophia Miles. The staff starts the book before the school year begins and finishes it after the school year has ended.
“These kids spend probably around 800 or more hours outside of the school day working on this yearbook,” adviser Cherié Burgett said.
Throughout the school year, staff members stayed after school for work nights until 8 p.m. to work on the book even after working during school to create an award-winning book. Escutia said that one misconception about the yearbook is that it’s, “Let’s plop some pictures on a page and call it a day.” There’s more to it; like how they have to follow guidelines to be eligible to compete.
In December, Legacy staff found out they earned an All Missouri ranking from Missouri Scholastic Press Association, and in January they found out they earned an All American from the National Scholastic Press Association — the top ranking in the state and in the nation.
“You don’t realize how much of a workload it is, but it’s so much, and it’s so detail oriented,” Escutia said. “You can’t be messy with it; you have to be very specific,”
However, the amount of work varies between each staff member. At the start of the year staff members get to choose what they work on.
“They will choose if they want to do photography, writing or design. Those are the three big things,” Escutia said.
Junior Lillian Burwell, a photographer and writer, said the amount of work is like a roller coaster; sometimes they have a bunch of work, and sometimes they don’t.
“If you’re an editor, your whole life is your book,” Escutia said.
By the end of the first semester, the book is still in progress of being made.
“We just finished senior tributes,” Escutia said. “That was a huge mark, about 13 percent of the book.”
Yearbook students began to work on the portrait section, the largest section of the book. The staff makes sure everybody’s name is spelled correctly as well as creates content to fill the section.
“Once we’re done with that, then we’ll be about 50 percent done with the book,” Escutia said. “That’s definitely the biggest part of the book.”
By the end of the school year, the book is still not finished. The yearbook staff works to complete the remaining sections of the book in the first two weeks of summer break while awaiting state results from spring sports. They can’t submit those pages until they know the outcome of the season. When completed, the staff takes a month long break before starting to work on the book for the next year during summer camp.
