For the past 25 years, the HHS Yearbook class has been run by Mr. Gus Schell. This year, the responsibility is being passed down to Mrs. Cristina Redmerski, an English teacher here at Hawthorne High School. The Clarion interviewed her to see how she feels about this wonderful and exciting opportunity:

The Clarion: How did you get the position and why did you accept it?

Mrs. Redmerski: The principle last year, Mr. Tom DeMaio, asked if I would be interested, and I said I would. I figured I would really like it and be good at it. I had a lot of the current seniors when they were sophomores, so I thought it would be nice to work with them again and I also know them very well because I’m their class advisor. 

The Clarion: Do you have any experience working with the creation of a yearbook?

Mrs. Redmerski: I was one of the lead people working on the yearbook when I was in high school and when I went to Montclair State University, I also helped with publications like this. When I worked at Northern Valley they had a club for yearbooks and I was the co-advisor for that as well.

The Clarion: How do you feel about it?

Mrs. Redmerski: It’s a little stressful, but luckily Mr. Schell is helping me out a lot. 

The Clarion: How’s it going so far?

Mrs. Redmerski: The group so far is really into it. The person from Jostens, the program that is used, came in to talk to everyone and set everything up and I did some training. There are a lot of tools on the site which are scary, but also very user friendly. I think it’s going be great, but it’s definitely stressful with the deadlines and everything else.

The Clarion: Are there any differences you’re planning on making?

Mrs. Redmerski: Not really, we looked at different yearbooks and it’s the seniors’ yearbook so really I want to make sure they make a yearbook that they want, and on that represents them. I think Mr. Schell has been doing an amazing job.

The Clarion: How do you feel about yearbook being a class and not a club?

Mrs. Redmerski: I think it’s great that this is a class here and not just a club because it’s such an important part of high school. I still look at mine and I graduated in 2006 so I just want it to be organized and look great. 

As a student of HHS, I’m very excited to see what Mrs. Redmerski has in store for this year’s yearbook!