“Out of the Blue”

Every year at Bonita Vista High (BVH), a group of students works together to capture the essence of a school year in one book. Generally, the book is similar to the previous years with the same content; people being the only component changing. However, the 2020-2021 yearbook will break these traditional patterns by being the first BVH-produced yearbook to have screenshots of a computer screen as photos for the book. The yearbook staff had to change the traditional yearbook because the COVID-19 pandemic came “Out of the Blue,” which later became the theme of the yearbook.

“We [the 2020-2021 yearbook staff] came up with [the] theme because this whole pandemic came out of the blue and [no one was] expecting it,” Managing Editor of the Excalibur, BVH’s yearbook and senior Ysabelle Henry said. “We wanted to capture this pandemic; because in last year’s yearbook we didn’t really [address it].” 

Advisor of the Excalibur, Advanced Placement Literature and Composition teacher Gabriel Garcia explains how the yearbook staff physically couldn’t capture the pandemic. He says that the staff typically finishes the last pages of the book in March when BVH was released from school. That is why this year the staff is making sure they acknowledge the historical impact of the pandemic in the yearbook.

“We want to take an angle on what you miss [and] what you took for granted during school. I feel like we all [underappreciated] things—going outside without a mask,” Henry said. 

To successfully portray the aforementioned angle, and to accurately represent the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the yearbook staff has focused more on showcasing individuals instead of groups. Garcia says that the pages are more centered around the concept of being at home. 

“We’re trying our best to approach [events and pages] in a way that’s the most effective. We want to approach them [in a manner] that voices everyone’s opinion, especially teachers, staff [and students],” photographer for the Excalibur and senior Angelica Castillo said. 

Henry describes how taking screenshots of events is very different from taking physical pictures of events because the idea of capturing a story is lost. She explains that part of this reason is that the staff members can’t get emotion from a screenshot. 

Both the yearbook staff and Garcia agree that a book with only screenshots of online meetings would be very boring; however, as Castillo says, the staff wants to include some screenshots so they “can use this once in a lifetime opportunity to [create] something new out of the yearbook.” 

Even though much of the yearbook content is different, the class routine, for the most part, has remained unaffected. The main difference in the yearbook is the students’ communication with Garcia. Now, the class meets virtually on Google Meet instead of in a classroom together. Garcia describes how he still took the first six to eight weeks going through the general journalistic curriculum with the students. In addition, the staff still uses “E-design” as their platform to assemble the spreads.

“As a yearbook advisor, the first thing that I tell the students is that it is their book. So, my job is to make sure that they are working to produce a book that is consistent and inclusive,” Garcia said. “Those are my two main concerns.” 

Garcia illustrates that the only main change made to how he runs the class is how he approaches the students. Prior to the pandemic shutting down schools, he would walk around the class and check in on the students. He would also see the students for more time allowing him to connect with them. Now both actions have dwindled dramatically.