From 1902 to 2019, Placer’s Yearbook staff has been working endlessly to piece together a yearbook that encapsulates every accomplishment and memory made at Placer High School. Dan Wilson, Yearbook and Journalism advisor, stated that “[Placer’s] first yearbook was made in 1902, and they’ve made a yearbook every year since then, with the exception of 1905 when there was a lack of funding. Then, in 1997, there were two yearbooks made… the class of 1997 made a yearbook, but also it was the 100 year anniversary of Placer… a centennial yearbook was created by the Hillmen Foundation and former yearbook advisor Bob Burge.” Wilson expressed, “I’ve been the advisor since 2006. I took over from Burge, who was the advisor for 35 years. He’s someone else that understands the value of publishing a yearbook and the work that comes into it. “ Yearbook students spend most of their class period and much of their free time taking pictures, interviewing students and staff, and piecing together pages to go in each yearbook.
Alli Judd, this year’s Co Editor-in-Chief, asserted that, “I think about yearbook three periods a day, that’s about… five hours per day? Maybe more. I’ve spent quite a bit of my time thinking and doing yearbook activities.” Jasmine Walker, Co-Editor-in-Chief, described, “We come in during lunches [to work on yearbook]… I can’t even remember [how much time we’ve spent working]… last year like we came in so much. But we love it!” Wilson stated that “a lot of people think that the yearbook is done just in yearbook class when there’s a lot of time that is taken up during lunch, after school, and during sporting events so the students are spending a lot of time at sporting events and outside of class on their pages. For me, I spend a lot of time outside of class, whether it’s after school or before school or during lunch, with the editors or individuals helping them with their layout or questions that they have.” Most students at Placer decide to buy a yearbook sometime during the school year. Wilson asserted that “every year we sell between 750 and 900 yearbooks.” The decision to buy a yearbook varies from person to person, for multiple reasons ranging from general disinterest in the yearbook to being overjoyed at its arrival. Aiden Skinner, junior, expressed his opinion, stating, “I buy the yearbook because I want to capture my memories for after I graduate.” Jacob Prasad, junior, described, “No, I don’t buy a yearbook because it is too expensive. My senior year, yes I will buy one.” Wilson stated that although he agreed that yearbooks are expensive, he noted that the
price has remained the same since 2006 and is still cheaper than many schools.” Taylor Wells, sophomore, stated, “No I don’t buy a yearbook. I just don’t want to. I might buy one my senior year, but that’s about it.” This book also is important to graduating seniors because it reminds them of their high school years. Walker described that “everything changes… compared to freshman y e a r … w h e n you’re a senior, everything is so different, and it’s so funny to see that w h o l e progression [of y o u r h i g h school years] and how you’ve changed. [Alli and I] were just looking through our freshman yearbook the other day, and you probably heard us laughing because we were just like… ‘this is crazy!’” Overall, a lot of value is placed on Placer Yearbooks and the staff behind them. Wilson divulged, “I think yearbook is important because it’s one of the only documents, besides the newspaper, that captures everything that happens over the course of a year at Placer. In my opinion, it’s one of the few books that gains more in value every year after it’s been published. That’s why every year I get people contacting me that graduated in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s who didn’t get their yearbook and want it. Walker claimed, “yearbook captures why the year is special and different compared to all the rest of the other years.” Because our Placer Yearbook staff works hard to maintain a beautiful Placer yearbook each year, be sure to check out the 2019 yearbook coming next term!