It’s always fun to look back on the past and remember moments from the part of your life that helped shape your future. Flipping through the pages of a high school yearbook can bring back all the good and the bad times. However, with Triton, some students feel otherwise.

“I think the yearbook should have better quality and better organization for the price they start it at,” answers Triton junior Marcella Hubbard-Brucher, flipping through the Triton Yearbook. “What is it? I think it’s $60.”

The starting price is for the yearbook is $60, and raises to $70 after October 1st, while the Ipswich High School yearbook is only $40. This is already rather pricey for a yearbook, and there are inkblots on pages, names spelled wrong, and the word Crossover printed randomly throughout. Beyond, there’s a lot of misinformation in the yearbook. For example, the 2018 Graduating Class Yearbook had a page dedicated to Winter Cheer when that sport wasn’t active during that year.

Ipswich junior Kylie Smith was asked for her opinion on how to improve our yearbook. “You could dedicate a class to making the yearbook, like we do, or maybe you could find a better company to make the yearbook. I’d recommend Josten’s, they’re pretty good.”

Triton Voice decided to interview the yearbook advisor and art teacher, Mrs. Fein. She runs the yearbook club which meets on Wednesdays after school in the media lab. Fein said that there are  roughly ten people who work on the yearbook altogether. For a job as big as creating a high school yearbook, we assume that it would be helpful if more people were involved in the process. Since the students from Ipswich high school mentioned their yearbook class, Triton Voice brought up that idea to Fein.

“Yes, a couple of years ago, we actually almost had a class,” Fein responds. “It was approved by the administration to be a class, but it was our last round of budget cuts as a lot of electives were cut, so they weren’t adding any new ones.”

A common flaw that students notice is how short Triton’s yearbook is, especially when it was compared to Ipswich High school’s yearbook that happens to be almost three times the length of Triton’s. Triton High school has almost 200 more students than Ipswich, so it would only make sense that theirs should be shorter.  

“I think the reason our’s is so much longer is because we do have a lot more ads. We probably have 20-40 pages dedicated just to ads,” says Smith.

After going through the 2018 Ipswich yearbook, Triton Voice hasn’t been able to find a single error in any form. There are no spelling errors, and overall the layout of the Yearbook is professional looking. And yes, there are many pages of ads, but they were all moved to the back. Ironically enough, the Ipswich High yearbook had advertisements from all over the Triton towns, such as the Agawam Diner in Rowley or Newbury Kayak and Canoe in Newbury.

As far as ads go, finding them is not the problem according to Fein,“…we actually usually have a good number of local businesses and parents who support the yearbook with ads, it’s all about the yearbook staff getting out and talking to those people.”

Triton is already familiar with Josten’s, as they’re the company that makes our class rings. Many Ipswich students support Josten’s, including Ipswich junior Raphaella Pastos.

“Josten’s does an excellent job on the yearbook,” she says. “My favorite thing about the Ipswich Yearbook is all the focus they do on students. In the 2020 class section, they did a little feature of me and my summer in Greece. It’s really nice that they get so personal, and I feel like reading those little features will help kids remember each other more.”

It’s not only Pastos who gets a feature, though. On all the Ipswich Athletics or Arts pages, the yearbook class writes about the star seniors on teams or what the school play was about. They also number the pictures in the yearbook, and next to the numbers they summarize what is occurring in the picture.

Multiple Triton students have said they would like to see a yearbook elective become an option, including sophomore Andrew Babine. “Yes, it’s worth it for a better yearbook.”

When asked what he’s heard of the Yearbook club, Babine responds “…haven’t heard much to be honest, I don’t really know what they do in yearbook club”

“I would’ve undoubtedly signed up for a Yearbook class,” senior Alex Palmerino concludes. “To me, it is a big deal. This is the last physical memory of my grade’s time together. And I remember how frustrated my senior friends were last year. And with the whole Senior pictures issue this year with so many girls having to retake their pictures, I’ve got a bad feeling about the yearbook this year. With all that being said though, I think the biggest thing we can take away from the Ipswich yearbook is that they allow kids to express themselves, and not just through the features on them. They’re allowed to dress how they want to, and there’s plenty of beautiful shoulders to see.”

If Triton offered a yearbook elective, chances are that many students would be interested, and Mrs. Fein would have even more help to make our yearbook more like the one from Ipswich. With the class, more students would be able to spread ideas and give their opinions on behalf of the student body. Triton Voice plans to follow up with articles about the possibility of pushing for this to be a class.