SHELBYVILLE, Ky. — A high school in Shelbyville is putting together a yearbook. Like many schools, the endeavor presents some challenges after a pandemic school year.


What You Need To Know

  • A yearbook staff in Kentucky discusses how to properly document the year

  • Much of the school year remained online, canceling events that would normally be featured

  • Staff chose a creative route on including COVID-19 rules and procedures

The reason? Much of the school year took place online, forcing the cancellation of several popular events.

“On my parts, it was hard because nobody wanted to be in pictures in the yearbook,” said Christina Williams, a junior.

Williams is part of a yearbook staff at Martha Layne Collins High School. She said her layout is bare this year, so to fill the space, she and her fellow students got creative.

“So then we would ask them well can we pick some from your social media and stuff like that,” Williams said.

The school year partially remained online, which meant students who photograph events such as junior Sydney Seigle relied on student-submitted pictures.

“Definitely, when putting the yearbook together contacting people, and getting pictures for the yearbook were definitely I think the hardest because not everyone's at school, some people are in NTI some people are here, half the time, all the time, it's all over the place,” Seigle said.

Later in the school year when events did return, they were hampered by capacity limits.

“A lot of the sports events, they had limited capacities and even then, not a lot of fans were allowed to go. So that meant as photographers and members of the yearbook, we had to find ways to get into these events and have access to pictures like that,” Seigle said.

Their teacher Courtney Miller turned the obstacles into a learning lesson. They resolved the problem by issuing new sections in the yearbook focused on the COVID-19 rules.

“I want them 20 years down the road to be like well this is what I went through in high school and it's the mask it's assigned seating at lunch,” Miller said.

They’re aiming to capture an ever-changing school year into ever-lasting memories.

“I want them to have the good, the bad, when they were strong and when they got through things, and the things that they actually got to do,” Miller said.

The high school teacher said students will receive their yearbook during the fall semester. This year, the graduation ceremony is also included in the final version.