This year, Palo Alto High School students will not be able to purchase yearbooks unless they are ordered by tomorrow, Tuesday, Jan. 15. Unlike last year, when students were able to buy them after the January deadline because the staff would order extras, this year, no extra yearbooks will be ordered.
Yearbook adviser Margo Wixsom and junior co-editor-in-chief Sarah Limb state that the waste of resources in ordering extra yearbooks that went unsold last year caused Madrono to change its policy.
“Many of those extra yearbooks are not purchased, resulting in a waste of yearbook dollars and resources,” Wixsom and Limb said in a joint statement. “We usually ended up with many extras, and this results in a substantial loss of yearbook money. Year after year, we cannot afford to lose money due to unsold, extra yearbooks. It is more responsible to order only yearbooks that are paid for by our January deadline for ordering.”
Another change that the yearbook staff is making is that yearbook scholarships, cheaper ways to get yearbooks for students who cannot normally afford a yearbook, will no longer be available.
“Students need to remember that yearbook scholarships are no longer available through the yearbook program unless students sign up for the class,” Wixsom and Limb said.
Students have not reacted positively to the news of the scholarships being discontinued.
“I think with the millions that Paly had to pay for the new buildings and equipment, they should definitely be able to find a way to pitch in a few hundred dollars for their students,” junior Talia Brown said. “Especially since most of the students at Paly now won’t get to experience the new buildings in the first place. They should be able to get a yearbook if they want one.”
Junior Jessica Branson echoed Brown’s discontent with the policy change.
“I think it’s dumb because a lot of freshmen will probably not know when to buy it,” Branson said. “They would still get the same amount of money when people purchase them late, so they would make more money in the end.”
To see if you have purchased a yearbook, click here.
Students can purchase a yearbook for $75 here.