Central Academy teachers, students create school's first-ever yearbook

During her five years of teaching at Central Academy School, teacher Brianna DeWitt heard her students ask her the same question at least once a year.

Why aren't they included in a yearbook?

It's a question DeWitt never had an answer for until this year.

DeWitt, along with fellow Academy teacher Anitra Bahner and a handful of students, embarked on a project at the beginning of this school year to produce a student yearbook for Central Academy students.

"We love the students here and want them to be represented and have an equitable experience at school," DeWitt said.

Central Academy educates more than 150 students a year in grades six through 12, DeWitt said. As an alternative placement program of the Cape Girardeau School District, the academy's educators help students who struggle to learn in traditional school environments.

Central Academy students are not included in yearbooks, according to Bahner. By not having a yearbook, she said, students lose their opportunity to remember and be remembered. In that light, it's like the academy students are "lost kids," Bahner said.

"There's nothing to document that they were students here," Bahner added. "As a mother, I think about their parents or guardians not having that for them also."

Central Academy's new yearbook will be completely student produced. In a class they'll get credit for, students will be in charge of photographing events and each of the academy's students. They'll also control the design and layout of the yearbook.

Each Central Academy student will have an opportunity to design two pages of their own yearbook, even if they're not enrolled in the yearbook class.

Junior Chandler Farless said she looks forward to taking photos for the yearbook. Farless and junior Lexie Vaughn were selected by their teachers to lead the yearbook as editors.

Vaughn came to Central Academy four years ago, and recalled a time when she did have a yearbook.

"I remember in elementary school when we got our first yearbook and we ran around the classroom signing them," Vaughn said. "We don't have that here."

Students will receive a yearbook in August so it could include photos of Central Academy's graduation.

To produce the yearbook, DeWitt said they're working to raise $5,000 in donations.

Many Central Academy students and families may not be in a position to spend money on a book, according to Bahner.

The yearbook's staff and advisers aim to give the yearbook free of cost to all students. They plan to fundraise through raffles, community or individual sponsorships.

Community members may sponsor an individual child's yearbook by emailing DeWitt at dewittb@capetigers.com.

DeWitt acknowledged some students may not care they don't have a yearbook. But there are moments and milestones — from graduation to silly haircuts — they may want to remember and share as they grow older.

Central Academy students deserve a chance to reminisce just as much as students at non-alternative schools, according to DeWitt.

"Their experiences are just as important as everyone else's," she said.