In late May, students around the nation lose focus on their textbooks and are enthralled with a different type of book: the school yearbook.

Students crack open the fresh bindings and scrounge more than 250 pages looking for pictures of themselves, quotes from their friends and articles about their team.

The yearbook does not come together over night, though. Hours of photography, editing and layout by the editor in chiefs and staff members make The Spartan Annual, one of the top yearbooks in the state.

The Spartan Annual is put together by a staff of more than 20 students, an Editor in Chief, an Assistant Editor in Chief, and the Yearbook Advisor.

“As Editor in Chief, I have to plan the ladder, setup pages, submit pages, make proofs, corrections, just oversee the entire process,” senior and Editor in Chief Steph Shekels said.

Sarah Cole, ninth grade enriched English teacher and advisor for The Spartan Annual, calls herself the “master of delegation and project manager.”  Her goal is to “insure a top-notch historical record of the year.”

“I am not involved in the yearbook, and don’t know much about it,” senior Rachel Bongart said. Bongart estimated that the Editors in Chief put in about four to five hours per week and the staff members put in two hours per week.

Unknown to Bongart, and most members of the student body, is that Yearbook is a class as well as an extra-curricular.

In the yearbook class, “Homework is non-traditional and most work has to be done at school,” Cole said.

“The class environment is really fun, but it’s very work-oriented and complicated,” Assistant Editor in Chief Julia Mason said.

Shekels and Mason estimated that they both separately put in about 20-25 hours per week of work on the yearbook, and the staff members put in about 5-10.

“Deadlines for the yearbook are really stressful,” Shekels said, “but I love being able to be creative with showing how our school year went.”

The theme for the yearbook is different every year.  In the past few years it has included “Orono in a Word,” “The Elements of Orono,” and “The Spartan Experience.” The yearbook staff members work hard to create a solid theme and work even harder to keep it a surprise until yearbook distribution day.

“My favorite part of the yearbook is definitely designing and implementing the theme,” Mason said. “This year’s book is going to be a lot different from the others. We were inspired by other books around the nation and we wanted to create a vibrant book that really connects everyone.”

The Spartan Annual doesn’t just end in the hands of students. Orono has a yearbook that places in the top in the state consistently and wins multiple awards at different contests. “We generally win awards for our theme,” said Mason, “and we are really proud of what we do.”

The yearbook staff didn’t start out winning all of the awards, though.  In 2003, Sarah Cole took on the job of the yearbook advisor as a renegotiation of her contract. “To be honest, I didn’t really want to do it, but now I’m so lucky that it fell into my lap. Being the advisor is one of my favorite parts of my job. I am such a yearbook nerd… I just love it so much.”

Some challenges are faced by The Spartan Annual staff, though.

“We work year-round, there is no season for us,” said Mason, “we create our theme and go to different conferences in the summer, and create pages from September to April, and start all over again with a brand new book in the spring.”

“As far as I know, we are the only yearbook that has class only one semester, which makes it extremely difficult,” said Cole.

“It’s hard to keep up with the work during second semester because we don’t meet everyday and our staff dwindles down,” said Shekels. “If I could wish for one thing, it would be class second semester, because then we could make an even better book to an even higher standard.”

Despite the obstacles faced by the staff, the yearbook has transitioned 250 pages in vibrant color. The Spartan Annual has adapted to modern technology and changed with the culture at Orono. In the 1984 yearbook, some of the awards for the senior hall of fame included “Biggest Apple Polisher” and “Most Sensuous.” Now, there are awards like “Best of Friends” and “Most Involved.”

The yearbook is an accurate record of a year in the life of Orono, consisting of dances, sports, activities and friendships. Students flip through the pages of The Spartan Annual but only a few realize the time, passion and dedication that goes into creating this piece of art.