This school year, the HAHS yearbook price is nearly half of what it was last year. This is due to a switch in the publishing/printing company used and this change happened so that the yearbook, or pinnacle, is more affordable and accessible to all the students at HAHS.
Mrs. McCarthy, the adviser of the publications class that makes the yearbook, has used the company Balfour to publish the school yearbook the past few years. This year, the School Publications Company or SPC will be used to print the pinnacle. SPC is a company based in New Jersey that prints newspapers, magazines and yearbooks. This company will be new this year, but Mrs. McCarthy has worked with them in the past as they used to print the school newspaper and the district literary magazine.
The other publishers that were used in the back for the yearbooks had a much larger price because a portion of that was used to pay the representative’s salary. The representative would occasionally come out to school and help with the pinnacle. The price between other companies and SPC is greatly different because there is not a representative that comes out to the school and they are a printing company rather than a publishing company. Since Mrs. McCarthy has been in charge of the pinnacle for 28 years and is very experienced, a representative is not necessary for the production of the yearbook at HAHS. However, a representative may be very useful for an adviser who has only been in charge of the yearbook for a few years. Even though SPC does not have a representative, Mrs. Mcarthy can still reach out and get help with any questions she has. SPC was used for the 2015 and 2016 yearbooks and not only is the price much cheaper, it still has the same quality, glossy pages, and sharp colors as well as the students in the publications class can still use InDesign which is the program that has been used for the past few years. Mrs. McCarthy says, “I am very excited and confident to work with the School Publications Company again.” The only downside to using SPC is there is no online order because they do not accept credit card payments and they do not send out reminder emails to families.
Madison Redding, a junior at HAHS, shares some insight on this topic as a student. Last year, she did not purchase a yearbook and mentioned that price played a factor in that decision as well as her not being a collector of books and wants to wait until her senior year to purchase a yearbook. The price of the yearbook being nearly half this year than it was last has made purchasing a yearbook tempting for Madison as well as her being a part of designing the yearbook. Madison says, “I think the price change is good for the people who intended to buy a yearbook last year, but couldn’t because they couldn’t afford it. Hopefully this change allows them to purchase one this year!” Madison also thinks the majority of students would feel happy about this change!