Despite budget cuts that have hit Catasauqua Area School District hard, Catasauqua High School student organizations still have expectations for an active and successful year.

Among them, the CHS yearbook staff is looking to take their annual publication to the top.

Yearbook advisor and art teacher Barbara Resto and her team of students have collaborated on improvements they would like to make to this coming yearbook.

The traditional name for the yearbook, "Brunalba," will be retained. With "brun" meaning brown and "alba" meaning white, in the French language, the title, selected when a yearbook was first created for students decades ago, reflects school colors.

"A big key to the yearbook's success is to first and foremost lower the price," said Resto. "The price of the 2013 yearbook will be lowered by $20 to a price of $45."

The yearbook advisor believes this will be one of many factors that can lead to increased yearbook sales.

In order to reduce the cost of production and retail price of the book, the staff selected a different publishing company this year.

To augment the yearbook budget for production costs, toward the end of the 2011-12 school year, the yearbook club was rapidly fundraising.

One effort was the sale of scratch-off cards. Students would buy a scratch off card, similar to a Pennsylvania State Instant Lottery card. After students would scratch the card, they would see a number ranging from 50 cents to $3. Whichever amount of money that would be on the scratch off card, that amount would be donated to the yearbook fund. This brought in over $1,000.

In another fundraiser which began this school year, a breakfast cart made its debut.

Senior Selena Contreras presented the idea to have a breakfast and school supplies cart that would be available to students every morning before class begins. Students and teachers purchase items from the cart.

"For the breakfast cart to be successful, we need to raise $10 a day," Resto said. "Since the beginning of the breakfast cart, we have been making $15 to $20 a day."

Resto said some of the funds will go toward buying new photography equipment.

While the successful fundraising has helped the club get off to a good start, the main question for many students is how the yearbook will be improved this year.

The Class of 2013 yearbook will introduce a brand-new QR code video feature. Pages will contain a black bar code. With any smart phone, a yearbook owner can scan the QR code with a smart phone to view a video related to what the given page is about.

For example, if the football team's page in the book contains a code, the student would scan the code with a phone, and a video of a Catasauqua touchdown from a football game would appear on the smart phone screen.

Last year's Class of 2012 yearbook will be released near Thanksgiving, offering coverage of school events through commencement exercises in June.

A decision for the 2013 yearbook was made that will put the book in the hands of students at the conclusion of the school year in June 2013.

This means spring activities will get light coverage. While spring sports pictures will be included, the book will lack in-depth seasonal recaps.