Senior Eh Khu Poe will serve as Editor-in-Chief of The O-Book this school year, having been selected to lead Central’s yearbook by Adviser Brody Hilgenkamp in May.
Poe, who goes by her last name, will oversee a staff of 21 students tasked with creating an end-of-year publication that commemorates the people, events and culture of Central High School during the 2023-2024 school year. Senior Jill Bertino will assist Poe in editing the yearbook in the position of Managing Editor.
“It was really important to Poe to create a culture of getting things done,” Hilgenkamp said. “Something that I didn’t do a good job of as a first-year adviser was figuring out how to apply accountability to students. Poe was someone who was really reliable with getting things done and saw the consequences of [staff members not doing their work].”
Poe joined the staff of The O-Book as a junior after being denied her preference of becoming a photographer for The Register due to scheduling conflicts. As a first-year staff member, Hilgenkamp said he noticed her taking an active role in motivating other staff members to complete their work on time.
“Even though she wasn’t in an editor’s role last year, she started to show a lot of leadership qualities even though that wasn’t a part of her job title,” Hilgenkamp recalled.
Poe’s appointment follows a tumultuous year for Central’s yearbook, which was plagued by a string of difficulties following the departure of longtime adviser Hillary Blayney in 2022. During the 2022-2023 school year, staff members frequently turned in assignments late or incomplete, and deadlines were inconsistent or poorly communicated to staff. As a result of these issues, the yearbook, originally slated to be issued to the student body prior to the seniors’ last day, was not distributed until the last week of school. Seniors picked up their yearbooks from school along with their caps and gowns for graduation.
While acknowledging the struggles the yearbook endured, Poe said she remains proud of the work she did to accurately represent the student body.
“I put 100 percent of my effort into it,” she said. “I didn’t want to disappoint anyone. I wanted everyone I put in the yearbook to be proud of what I did.”
To combat laziness among the staff and confusion surrounding deadlines, Poe has introduced a new workflow requiring staff members to complete a spread for the yearbook every two weeks.
Poe succeeds senior Ella Jaksha, who left the yearbook’s top job at the end of the 2022-2023 school year, alongside Assistant Editor Sarah Spomer. Jaksha said that her departure was motivated both by her busy class schedule and her view that she had been poorly prepared to lead the yearbook without Blayney’s guidance.
“I had only done yearbook sophomore year before becoming editor,” she said. “I wasn’t really expecting to be on my own with a new adviser, so I really did not know what I was doing at all.”
She attributed the yearbook’s delay to a disorderly workflow and poor communication between staff members. “We were not equipped to meet deadlines with the organization of the whole process,” she said. “As the year went on, I did not have any expectations of [the yearbook] being on time or accurately edited.”
Jaksha expressed optimism at the direction of the yearbook under Poe and Bertino, praising the work ethic they showed while she was editor.
“When Poe and Jill found out [the yearbook was going to be late], they really stepped up to help others with their spreads,” she said. “I think they both have really good creative direction.”
Poe selected Scrapbook/Y2K Magazine as the theme for the 2023-2024 O-Book, an aesthetic she described as “poppy, groovy, vibey,” crediting Pinterest as the inspiration for the theme. “With scrapbook, you can get messy with it, and it doesn’t have to be so formal,” she said. “I feel like the staff can have fun and show creativity in the spreads.”
Poe cited ensuring the yearbook is visually pleasing and distributed to students on time as her top priority. She emphasized a commitment to feature a more diverse group of students in the yearbook, including more underclassmen and students of color. She also vowed to crack down on staff members fabricating quotes, a practice that has remained common at The O-Book despite being officially prohibited.
The 2023-24 O-Book is set to be distributed to all students the week of May 6, 2024.
