It has only been two weeks into the school year, and Erie’s yearbook staff is already hard at work, assigning new leadership positions, creating layouts, and attending school events, as they adjust to their new teacher Brandon Bird.

The yearbook staff ran successfully under the leadership of Russell Fox for years, but after he accepted a position at another school, yearbook needed a new leader. Bird eagerly stepped up to the task. Teacher of Erie Tiger Network, the Tiger Times, and Mass Media, Bird has plenty of experience in running a successful journalism program and many exciting new ideas for this year.

Yearbook team is working to create a dependable group of students that are excited about the stories they are writing and the photos that they are taking; starting by creating new responsibilities for some of the students.

Every year the yearbook staff strives to make the best book with as little mistakes as possible, however it is impossible to catch them all. Last year the yearbook staff had a few leadership positions within the students but also gave the students many creative freedoms on their assigned pages. While this has worked well, Bird decided to allow some of the students to take on the extra responsibility of an editing position. Some of the new positions that were created are photo editor, junior editor, design editor, and media chair. Editors will determine what gets approved and if each page is meeting Erie’s high standards. By creating these additional editing positions, the yearbook staff will have an extra check before submission, which will hopefully improve the content, and make it even better. Returning yearbook student Melanie Girdner says, “ I think it’s great that we’re starting to incorporate more students in the designing of our yearbook because it really makes it feel like its our book. At the end of the year, Erie’s yearbook is for the students and we hope that we can make something that everyone is proud to look back on.”

Yearbook students old and new are excited for this year and the new changes being made, as they have high hopes for the 2018 – 2019 yearbook being one of their most inclusive and memorable works to date.