SRVUSD is currently considering a proposal to change the course category of Yearbook to Fine Arts. This would apply to students from every high school in the district who take Publications or Advanced Publications, including those at DVHS. If approved, the change would go into effect fall of 2025; the proposal focuses on the high artistic component of the course, specifically in the areas of page design and photography.
“I’d have to look it up, but over the last few years we’ve averaged in our photo library at the end of the year, we have more than 50,000 images,” DVHS teacher Jeffrey Silverman said. “And so there’s a lot of photography going on, and all the students in here are taking pictures at one time or another.”
Silverman has taught Publications for over a decade. He instructs students how to use the Canon DSLR cameras that take most of the images each volume. Additionally, a large share of class time is spent on page layouts and photo editing. Silverman also has experience supervising existing arts courses, due to a teaching credential in industrial and technological education that has enabled him to teach Computer Graphic Arts and Photoshop.
“I feel like in Yearbook, you are basically doing multiple art classes all in one class anyway,” junior Eka Yang said, who has served as a Yearbook photography editor for two years. “Like, I do media graphic design in that class, I do photography in that class, so I think it really makes sense for it to be an art class. It would be great.”
However, the lack of a precedent for the category change presents problems. The Yearbook teacher at Cal High was the latest to propose the change back in 2023, according to Silverman. A major obstacle to the switch, they learned, was teaching credentials.
“The district came back and said ‘Hey, it really needs to be art teachers,’” Silverman said. “In order for us to have this count as an art credit it would need to be art teachers teaching Yearbook… [but] the high school teachers in this district who teach Yearbook have different kinds of credentials and different subjects.”
Silverman says he “didn’t really go to bat for it, mostly just out of time and energy.” However, this fall he renewed the proposal, and has heard that it is under consideration.
“Honestly, this is the time to do it,” Silverman acknowledged, nodding. “District policy for any new courses or changes is [that] all the stuff has to happen in the fall for the next year, because it takes time to do all the things they have to do to make it work. So this is the right time anyway. And so we’ll see what the district comes back with.”
In the meantime, many Yearbook students juggle full schedules and B periods (particularly freshmen, who due to general course requirements can’t take Publications without a B period). Their photography and graphic design knowledge has, some say, been applicable in the arts courses they take.
“This year, I’m doing AP Art for my art requirement,” Yang said. “I don’t think any other of Ms. Wengel’s students does this, but I’ve done photography and media graphic design for my art portfolio. Because usually, you’re supposed to have drawing prerequisites, but I had photography prerequisites.”
Currently, Yearbook is categorized as a nondepartmental elective, like Leadership or Health. It is articulated as a “G” in the UC and CSU university systems. On student transcripts within the district, it goes into the “additional credits” category. If the proposal were approved, Yearbook would instead be slotted as a Fine Art course, which can contribute to the arts graduation requirement. Regulations aside, Silverman believes additional art classes do benefit his students. The matter has not been settled, and in his opinion could go either way.
“It’s not an easy thing for the district to do, because it’s such a unique kind of course,” Silverman concluded. “There’s not one credential for yearbook, there’s not one type of teacher that is teaching Yearbook. Most things it’s a pretty blanket thing: if you’re teaching geometry here, then that’s the same as geometry at the other schools and they have the same credentials and all that. So this is a unique situation and, you know, we’ll see.”
