Dear Senior Parent/Guardian,
The senior year has begun! We know that you are busy helping your senior prepare for and navigate the exciting last year of high school, and there are a lot of details to consider as well as deadlines looming. With that in mind, this letter is to let you know of the yearbook deadlines coming up regarding senior portraits, tribute ads, yearbooks, and the ways in which the yearbook staff works to make the Arcata High Advance special for our graduates.
First, it is important to us that every senior graduating from Arcata High has a senior portrait in the yearbook. To ensure this happens, your student will need to have had their ID photo taken on Monday, August 25. If they did not, there will be a make-up picture day so be sure to have them get a retake that day. We will use that photo in the yearbook unless we receive an alternate portrait from you. If your student transfers to another school (including Pacific Coast) second semester they will be included in that school’s yearbook not the AHS yearbook. If you would like to send in an original photo to replace their ID photo, we’d love to include it in the yearbook. If you choose to do that, this is the procedure: 1. Schedule your student’s senior portrait this fall. 2. Send a digital copy of this photo to [email protected] in this format: vertically oriented, 300 dpi/ppi.
Secondly, we would also like to include a baby photo alongside their senior portrait. Please send a digital copy of a photo of your choice showing your senior when they were a baby or very young to the same email: [email protected]. It is always fun to see how much they’ve changed!
Both the senior portrait and baby photo are due by the Friday before winter break. This year that date is December 19th. It’s important to meet this deadline to ensure that we have plenty of time to create these pages which are much more involved than the underclassmen portraits.
Additionally, we often include photos taken by parents, students, and community members who are not on our staff. If you ever have any photos you’d like us to consider for yearbook publication, please send them to us at: [email protected]. These could be pre-prom photos, sports photos, or any other school activities that you have photographed throughout the year.
If you’d like to guarantee your student has extra photos in the yearbook, you can consider placing a tribute ad. These are a fun way to say congratulations to your graduating senior. They are due by Thursday, February 12th, and you can find the cost and instructions for them here: https://yearbookavenue.jostens.com/sell/ad/offers.html
While we love the tradition of including original senior portraits, and other photos submitted by parents and friends, we reserve the right to refuse to print anything that is not school appropriate. This includes, but is not limited to, any photo that has profanity, weapons, depicts violence, promotes, suggests or in any way refers to drugs or alcohol, or anything that can be construed as racist, sexist, or homophobic. If you have any questions about our criteria, please be in touch.
Lastly, we hope that you will consider purchasing a yearbook for your senior. It’s a book full of the history of their senior year, which can not be found in this way in any other place. Yearbooks are currently on sale here at their lowest price all year: $85. There are only a few books left at this price. Once these are sold out there will be 75 books available for $95. After that all remaining books will be sold at the final price of $105. If you would like to reserve a yearbook and pay it off by the end of the year, that option is available at the website check out.
We hope this letter helps answer any questions you may have about portraits and yearbooks for your senior. If you have further questions, please email me at [email protected].
All the best,
Debora Jacobsen, AHS Yearbook Advisor