Major Changes in Grant High School’s Yearbook Program

As it enters a new century of operation, Grant High School’s yearbook program is returning to an old style of production.

Forty million dollars in district-wide budget cuts resulted in yearbook, which was previously a part of the class schedule, becoming a club at the start of the 2025-2026 school year. The new club will be run by Vice Principal Jessika Magnett and College and Career Coordinator Madeleine Kokes, who have confident prospects of the club’s success. The recent confirmation of the program’s status as a club, however, has resulted in some editors deciding to step down.

Ann Worthington, previously editor-in-chief, voiced concerns she and her colleagues felt about the club. “If we do manage to get a yearbook, I’m not entirely sure it will look the same as past years’,” she says. “If we couldn’t even get some of the people to do the work in the class, how can we expect people do it in a club? You know, a club has less commitment. People view it as less of a commitment.”

Last year, the yearbook staff was composed of 23 total staff members, including eight editors. The class had a designated period advised by David Sheerin, who also worked as Grant’s architectural drawing teacher. A round of layoffs announced at the end of the school year named him as one of the teachers who would be leaving the school. What this would mean for the yearbook team was not clear then, as administration reached out to various teachers if they’d be able to fill the role; however, none accepted the offer, and as August approached, the yearbook editors remained unaware of the change occurring to their program.

The rumors which had been building up since Sheerin’s departure would reach Worthington on a sidewalk in July. She lived near the previous advisor, and ran into him one day while she was walking her dog. He told her about the rumors of the yearbook class becoming a club. “I at least assumed they would have had an idea about it last year, and they didn’t bring it up to us. And instead, we had to find out two days before,” Worthington says. “I’d expected in two days I’d be going to a class and trying to, like, run something, and instead I just have these other classes. Now it’s like, ‘Oh, well, now what do I do?”

Grant senior Lio Lemoine was another of the initial yearbook editors who anticipated scheduled class time for the project; however, this would have been his first year on the staff. Upon hearing the news, Lemoine worried that his extracurricular activities — namely sports and a job — would get in the way of his ability to stay in the program. “I was prepared to make the commitment to the team,” he writes. “But when I forecasted for the class, I was under the impression that most of the work would be done during the school day in a class period.”

Senior editor Wren Rockness was shocked at the communication surrounding the change: “It was really surprising that no one explicitly reached out to the editors to inform us of the decision,” she writes. “I understand that budget cuts happen. Principals are given hard decisions to make, however the absence of communication feels disrespectful.”

The busy schedules of Grant administrators, like Magnett and Principal James McGee, have made communication to address concerns and make plans difficult. The editors attempted to schedule a meeting with McGee twice. After he missed the first one, it was rescheduled to the next day. This meeting was attended by his assistant, Chantiel Attmore, instead. Despite these frustrations, Worthington is sympathetic toward their efforts. “They are trying their best, I think, so I’m not too upset with them,” she says. “It’s just like, kind of an unfortunate situation, and I’m mostly upset about the fact that we were left out and now we’re kind of being expected to do something that we didn’t necessarily sign up for.”

Magnett says that many factors go into deciding which teachers and programs to cut. When eight teaching positions had to be cut to meet budget cuts, core classes such as English and foreign language classes were prioritized, because all students must take them in order to graduate. Then the removals are focused more on electives, and are enrollment-centered. Since architectural drawing and yearbook, the two courses Sheerin taught, had relatively low enrollment numbers and were not part of Grant’s core curriculum, they, along with Sheerin, were chosen to be removed.

“We still want to do a yearbook,” Magnett says. “We need somebody to advise it. We need to get it up and going. It’s a big job, right? And so we had to go the club route.” When difficulties finding an advisor continued into September, Magnett decided to step in.

At the same time, the change remained mostly a rumor among students, and a complete unknown to many parents until recently. Yearbook sales were announced in the weekly Grantonian emails without any mention of the changes to the program until last Friday, and gave no opportunities for refunds after. Seniors had been scheduling their photos through summer, and were waiting for a link to submit them and their choice song.

Students and parents who had heard of the change wondered if a yearbook holding up to previous standards would be able to be produced by a club. Grant senior Sofia Korpi writes, “I am very worried if the yearbook will even happen. When it was a class that happened 2/3 times a week it was still a rush to get things done.”

One Grant alum and former yearbook staff member shares Korpi’s concern. “It can be extremely difficult and stressful juggling the organization and creation of the yearbook, clubs, sports and life as a teen,” she writes. “Working on yearbook already takes a large chunk of time out of life outside of school and removing the in school time dedicated to yearbook will make it infinitely harder for students to effectively organize and plan the yearbook.”

Around 2 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18, the mother of an initial yearbook editor sent out a post to the Grant Parents and Caregivers Facebook page announcing that the yearbook editors were going on a “‘strike’” due to lack of communication from the school: “There won’t be a yearbook if something isn’t done soon … After laying off the teacher and making it be a ‘club,’ (the editors) have been given nothing to do a huge job — no advisor or resources.”

Two hours later, an email appeared in the inboxes of all 59 students who forecasted for yearbook for the 2025-2026 school year. It announced that the first meeting for this year’s yearbook staff would be held Wednesday, Sept. 24 from 4-6 p.m. in room 104. The next day, the same message was posted in the weekly Grantonian email. By the morning of the meeting, roughly 25 students had RSVP’d that they would be attending — including a student who hadn’t originally forecasted, but had gone to and photographed many school events this year.

Magnett is looking forward to taking on the role of advisor — both to support the program and for the opportunity to work closer with students, something her position often doesn’t entail. She and Kokes will attend a two-day training seminar this Thursday and Friday to further their knowledge for the positions. 

To Worthington, passion, rather than direct experience, is the most important quality in an advisor. “We just need a good leader and communicator and someone that will, like, stand up for us,” she says. “We don’t necessarily need them to be an expert on how to do yearbook pages, because we kind of know how to do it already.”

Integrating the diversity of interests and activities of Grant’s students into the yearbook’s pages and staff is Magnett’s greatest goal. She points out that by running the program as a club — which has not been done at Grant for a long time — a broader variety of students may feel more comfortable joining it. “That is what makes us strong and unique,” she says. “I want to see all student voices and student identities and student experiences elevated and celebrated.”

However, because the decision was made without any input from the editors, many of them decided to withdraw fully from the program.

For Lemoine, a would-be first-time staffer, deciding to step down was very difficult. “It feels incredibly shameful to commit to (the yearbook) and go through the whole process of becoming one of the editors, only to back out because I literally cannot make this work with my schedule,” he writes. “The truth is I can’t balance going to practice 5 days a week and working a job 2-3 days a week on top of the academic weight of 8 classes while also working on the yearbook after school every day. I was really excited to do this and I really want to make it work, but if this remains an after school club then I’ll have no choice but to step down.”

Rockness, alongside Worthington, may be one of the only of the returning editors continuing with the new club. “There is a lot to consider because on one hand, yearbook is something I do care about. I think yearbooks are an important part of our school community, and as the only returning editor, I do feel an obligation to bring my experience to the book,” she writes. “However, without clear communication, I am concerned we are not being set up for success to produce a quality book the school deserves due to the potential lack of staff, lack of resources, and lack of time as a result of the decision to cut the class. I don’t want the possible consequences of admin’s decisions to fall on yearbook staff’s shoulders.” Amid her worries, however, Rockness is eager to hear Magnett’s plans for the club’s success.

Overall, Worthington hopes that the complexity of the situation will not reflect poorly on the club’s success, and encourages students to contribute photos from past events or information on sports teams as ways of helping out. Magnett views it similarly. “I would like to ask that our community and our students offer grace as we’re navigating these really tough times with budget cuts,” she says. “It’s really important that we come together rather than stir things up.”

Looking at funding-based changes made to Grant’s programs in recent years from the high school perspective, Worthington recognizes that it’s easy to lose the bigger picture, and manages to remain hopeful. “It sucks how the situation ended in this light, because obviously I do think people involved with yearbook were kind of left out of the situation in this discussion, and that’s obviously upsetting. But, you know, I think people are trying their best in it … We’re trying to make it work,” she says. “I think the yearbook this year will definitely need lots of involvement from a lot of people … We will need all the help we can get.”

Magnett recognizes the scale and difficulty of the project; however, it doesn’t phase her. “I know what Grant students and staff are capable of,” she says. “This is just one of those challenges that we’re going to come together and we’re going to do great … I have no doubt.”