Recently, the Upper School Administration sent an email to the class of 2019 and their parents announcing that this year there will be a change in Parker’s traditional senior ads, usually located in the back of the yearbook. Instead, the Administration will produce a tribute book whose purpose is to replace the ads from seniors’ family and friends. The Administration plans to use the name “Parker Senior Tribute Book.”

Tributes are ads that family and friends of the seniors would pay to put in the yearbook.  The ads could be anywhere from a half page to a full page, and people had the choice of colored or uncolored spreads.

Senior Grade Chairs, Xiao Zhang and Leslie Holland-Pryor will lead the process of making the tribute book. According to the email, the new tribute book will include “a two-page, full color spread for every senior student.”

The email, sent by Principal Dan Frank, Assistant Principal Ruth Jurgensen, and Upper School Head Justin Brandon, read, “The school will continue this lovely tradition of honoring seniors but in a much more affordable and inclusive way.” Describing this change as “an approach that is much more in line with Parker values.”

The price of two color pages in the tribute book will be $100. Last year, purchasers of senior tribute ads in the yearbook had to pay anywhere from $565 to $975 for one full colored page in the yearbook. Because the tribute book is being produced independently of the yearbook, the school has more control over pricing.

Parker is working to make the tradition of yearbook ads more equitable for all families, claiming in the email “families receiving financial assistance will also be supported.”

“In the past, some families could afford multiple pages; while others couldn’t even afford to participate,” Administrators wrote The decrease in price is the primary reason for the change.

“The yearbook had a lot of trouble with the ads, which is another big reason for the change,” Senior Yearbook co-Editor-in-Chief Simran Jain said. “We had no say in the decision, it wasn’t up to the yearbook or students. It was the Administration’s choice.”

“I don’t see the use in it,” senior Max Lewandowski said of the Senior Tribute Book. “I think the price is a little high, and all in all this new book does not make a lot of sense to me.”

Senior Annette Njei will miss certain aspects of the tribute ads in the yearbook. “I will say that I do like seeing the recognition, and the letters the parents write to their children in the whole concrete yearbook,” Njei said. “I don’t know much about this new idea and what it will be, maybe it will be better, maybe it will be worse. I think it’s worth a shot.”

Other community members are optimistic about the Senior Tribute Book. “Personally, I am excited for this new change,” junior Adele Lowitz said. “Although I am not a senior, I think that this new book is so much more equitable.”

This new “Parker Senior Tribute Book” will become the new normal for all Parker students. The Administration has decided that the ads will not go back to being in the yearbook.