Basic yearbook wins two national honors

Kimberley McGee

Thursday, April 26, 2001 | 8:39 a.m.

It was a simple plan -- include as many students in the yearbook as space would allow.

That fundamental blueprint garnered Basic High School two top national awards for its 2000 yearbook -- the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's Gold Crown award, as well as the National Scholastic Press Association's National Yearbook Pacemaker award.

Anne Akers, associate director for the National Scholastic Press Association, said that the win was quite a coup.

"It's very unusual for a school to win both of those," Akers said. "There are fewer than 10 this year out of 500 books the judges went through. Basic was the only one from your state."

The books are judged on design, copywriting, editing, photography, coverage and concept (theme).

"Certainly it's an indication that it's one of the very best books in the country, overall," Akers said.

The contests are geared toward recognizing the students' creative capabilities, said Edmund Sullivan, director of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia in New York.

"It is rather unusual for the same book to win both in the same year at all," Sullivan said.

To win the award, yearbook staffs must appease a panel of judges who look for personality between the pages of the annuals, not just fancy computer work.

"When you get to this level of competition you have to get beyond the technical," Sullivan said. "It has to be done with creativity and flair."

John Gilmour, Basic's yearbook adviser for the past 10 years, said the yearbook staff set out to create a book to remember, not to win awards -- not that he's complaining.

"It's good for the school," Gilmour said. "We all feel proud when we are one of the top books in the country, but it's not our goal every year."

Basic also won the CSPA award in '95 and the NSPA in '98 for best yearbook under Gilmour's tutelage.

The book's theme, Basic Questions, Basic Answers, played off the school's name.

The yearbook staff collected quotes from students throughout the year. The quotes were filed in class and used as the staff deemed appropriate for the final page layout.

Each headline was a question and pages were peppered with glib answers by members of the student body.

"That was our goal, to get every kid in the whole school to say something in the book," Gilmour said.

The school will receive a plaque, Gilmour said -- and pride.

"We aren't doing this for the awards," he said. "But we want to do the best book that we can and as journalistically sound as possible."