North Cedar’s yearbook has rewarding history

CLARENCE - The yearbook is a recorded history of each school year's events and student body.

The history of North Cedar's yearbook, Excalibur, came into existence when the school was formed in 1995. The communities of Mechanicsville, Stanwood, Clarence, Lowden were four different schools, but combined to form two school districts. In 1996, the two districts combined to form North Cedar.

When the schools were separated, the yearbook adviser at Lincoln Community was Jane Koch and the yearbook advisers at Clarence-Lowden were Mike Ellingson and Kathy Ellingson.

In 1996, when the schools merged to form North Cedar Community School District, a decision had to be made on the name of the yearbook. The yearbook still went on strong, maybe even better than ever before. Just to add the perfect touch, Karina Krall and her yearbook staff decided to name the yearbook Excalibur.

'As far as who chose the name, the yearbook staff members came up with suggestions and they voted on it,” she said. 'Excalibur was chosen almost unanimously. We did not have the whole student body vote, nor did we seek board approval. It took about a week to decide.”

Soon after, Krall's yearbook staff started to win awards.

'We also wanted to have our book win awards and the individual yearbook staff members to win their own awards for design, copy and photography,” she said. 'We were extremely successful on all fronts. We won a number of awards every year, both individually and as a staff.”

The yearbook kept advancing and finally, in 2005, the whole book was in color, which was Excalibur Volume 11.

After Krall left, Carla Green took over in 2010 and she has been the yearbook adviser since. While technology still is improving, so is the yearbook. Almost everything is done online, like editing pictures, making cool designs for the pages and much more.

Although the yearbook is improving, the history and traditions are staying intact. The Excalibur has been entered into Iowa High School Press Association's whole book contest and won honors.

'I am so proud of my staff,” Green said. 'They have won awards in photography, social media and have written some outstanding articles.”

Technology also has expanded the audience for yearbook students. Many of the articles and the staff writes and the photos they take for the yearbook are posted on North Cedar's website, the Sun News and The Gazette.

'Three years ago, Anna Petersen emailed me just as school was out for the summer and asked if she could start a Facebook page for our yearbook,” Green said. 'I never say no to a great opportunity to promote Excalibur.”

There are other skills yearbook staff members must learn, like how to present themselves in public and approach businesses when they ask owners if they would like to place an advertisement in the yearbook. The funds help with the cost of production so the staff must understand finances and budgeting.