When Duquesne High School closed last year, there was no opportunity for students to preserve the memories of their school because the decision was made after students were out of school for the summer and seniors had already graduated.

But this year, student council members at Duquesne Elementary decided they want this year's graduating class -- the eighth grade --to leave with a concrete reminder of their school before they continue on to either East Allegheny or West Mifflin high schools.

So the six-member student council has taken it upon themselves to publish a yearbook for the school that will be dedicated to the eighth-grade class.

The book will reflect "the whole experience here at Duquesne from K-8 and it won't be all bad stuff. There is a lot of good stuff," said Yolanda Nelson, a student council member and eighth-grader.

The theme of the book is "New Beginnings" and it will be the first yearbook in the Duquesne school district in three years, said Jessie Estochin, the district's attendance officer, who also serves as a volunteer yearbook sponsor. Other members of the faculty are helping as well.

The yearbook was one of a number of extracurricular activities that were cut from the district's offerings as the budget deficit grew over the years.

This year's theme will reflect both the new beginnings for the eighth grade as its members head out of the district to high school and for the K-8 school, where efforts are being made to improve the curriculum and add extracurricular activities.

"We want to show everybody, to show the community of Duquesne that we can do good things," said Coty Ivory, one of the seventh-graders working on the yearbook.

The student council is working with a condensed schedule since the decision to produce the book wasn't made until about two months ago. At that time, student council members presented their list of proposed projects for the year and asked all of the 104 pupils in the school to vote for their favorite.

The yearbook won hands down, the student council members said.

Plans call for a paperback publication of 60 pages with a color cover and black and white photos inside that will cost $5. The layout, design and printing will be done at the headquarters of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, which is operating the Duquesne district this year.

For students in grades K-6, there will be class pictures included. Students in grades seven and eight will have individual pictures.

In addition, for grades seven and eight, elections were held for such titles as "most popular, most creative and most likely to succeed." Those students also will have individual photos.

There will be student-written poems at the beginning, middle and end of the yearbook. The beginning poem will be about how Duquesne High School closed. The poem in the middle will focus on making the current school a better place and the ending poem will address the graduating eighth grade.

Yolanda will write the ending poem and student council member Jalyssa Dixon, an eighth-grader, will write the other two.

Coty and student council member Leetoshia Washington, an eighth- grader, are the yearbook photographers and have been busy snapping photos at school events such as the talent show held last Friday.

Student council member Tiffany Kraus, also eighth grade, said the group is supposed to have all of its creative material to the AIU by the end of this week if the book is to be published by the last day of classes on May 28.

The creative part of the book is only half of the work. Student council members must also raise the $2,600 it will cost to publish it. In charge of the fund-raising efforts are Yolanda and student council member Adrianna Furby, a seventh-grader.

Student council members have held three bake sales and a donation drive from teachers to raise about $190 so far. They're also contacting churches and businesses and asked for donations or the purchase of ads in the book.

But at press time they were far away from their fund-raising goal. Still, the group appears determined to see the project to fruition. "A lot of people said we can't do it," Jalyssa said. "But we said it and we are going to do it."