Maize and Maize South High Schools recently won the All-Kansas Award for their 2021-2022 yearbooks through the Kansas Scholastic Press Association.

All-Kansas judges received a critique booklet and a copy of the yearbooks back in October. A total of 47 yearbooks were critiqued and 24 of them received the All-Kansas Award, including Maize and Maize South. 

Theme, coverage, reporting, photography, and design were all categories each yearbook was critiqued on.

Maize South’s yearbook teacher, Madison Loomis, has been advising the yearbook staff for three years now, and this is the first time her students received the award. 

In just her second year, Loomis was able to achieve this honor, and she says the kids are what make everything worth it.

“At the end of the day, I want them to be proud of what they did,” Loomis said.

 Loomis’s goal is to eventually get recognized on a national level and to work better as a staff. 

Maize’s yearbook teacher, Dan Loving, is in his fourth year of advising the yearbook staff and in the previous three years his staff has received this award. 

Looking back at the yearbook, Loving can confidently say that photography is a stronger category.

 “That’s what kids most want to see in the yearbook is good pictures and pictures that include them,” Loving said.

Yearbook is about being able to build relationships with kids and form a family that can put out their best work covering the past year of high school athletics and academics.

“My personal favorite part is getting to know kids. I don’t get that opportunity with my other classes,” Loving said.

In addition, adviser Amanda Hawkins and the Maize Middle School yearbook achieved their 2nd straight All-Kansas; Maize Middle School is the only middle school in Kansas to earn the prestigious award two years in a row.