A lot of questions have been asked about the 2004-05 yearbook. Over the summer, the server used by the staff to produce the yearbook was damaged when work was done in the yearbook room. There had been a leak in the roof and the dropped ceiling was removed to make that repair. The windows were replaced, too, as were the windows in all of the older part of the Howell Building. At some point during these renovations, the server was left running and was not protected from the dirt and dust caused by the repairs. All of that dirt was drawn through the server and wiped out the hard drive. Over 50 pages of the yearbook were wiped out at that same time.

When the staff tried to access the pages this summer, they found that the pages were gone. Over $1,200 later, the staff’s computer repair person was unable to recover any of what had been on the pages. So began the process of recreating the pages. The staff had gotten two new computers over the summer but found that the operating system in those computers would not run the PageMaker software they used to create pages. PageMaker is a design program that has been phased out by its owner and has been replaced by new software called InDesign CS2.

The staff ordered the new software and the companion software from the yearbook publishing company. When these were delivered, hopes ran high that they were on the right track. It was then that they realized that the four older computers cannot support the newest software because they lack the necessary operating systems update.

At this point, the school district’s technology department is working on updating all the yearbook’s computers so that it is possible to use the new software. The staff hopes that all the necessary upgrades and new software will be in place this week so that they can begin recreating the final pages for last year’s yearbook.

The staff apologizes for the delay on last year’s yearbook, but hopes that the students will understand and be patient about the delay.