Brighton High School (Rochester, New York)

Brighton High School
Address
1150 Winton Road
Rochester, New York, 14618
United States
Coordinates 43°7′24″N 77°34′00″W / 43.12333°N 77.56667°WCoordinates: 43°7′24″N 77°34′00″W / 43.12333°N 77.56667°W
Information
School district Brighton Central School District
Principal Tom Hall
Grades 9-12
Enrollment 1154 (2011-2012[1])
Average class size 290
School color(s) Blue, white and yellow
Mascot Barons
Publication Galaxy
Newspaper Trapezoid
Yearbook Crossroads
Graduates 96%
Website http://www.bcsd.org/bhs.cfm

Brighton High School, commonly abbreviated BHS, is a public high school located in the Brighton suburb of Rochester, New York, USA. It offers a comprehensive curriculum for students in grades 9–12. It is part of the Brighton Central School District.

Overview

In 2013, Brighton offered Advanced Placement (AP) classes in numerous subjects, including calculus (AB and BC), biology, physics, chemistry, environmental science, economics, government and politics, United States history, world history, European history, art history, music theory, statistics, English literature, English language, Spanish, French, German, and computer science.[2]

Brighton is a suburb of the city of Rochester. The high school has an urban-suburban program that allows inner city students to attend Brighton High School.

Performance

The school has appeared on Newsweek magazine's Top 100 Public High Schools list. In 1998, Brighton achieved its highest ranking on the Newsweek list, in 5th place. In 2004, it was ranked 27th in the nation. In 2006, it was placed 96th. In 2007, it was placed 79th, one ahead of Pittsford Mendon High School. In 2008, it was ranked 158, fifth among schools in the Rochester area behind Pittsford Sutherland, Pittsford Mendon, Greece Odyssey and Wilson Magnet. Rankings fluctuate heavily based upon AP exams administered relative to the graduating senior class. In 2010, Brighton was placed 126th.[3]

In 2007, U.S. News & World Report magazine ranked Brighton High School 57th out of 18,790 public high schools. It was the only Monroe County school on the list.[4]

Outdated information

The class of 2005 graduated 311 students. There were six National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists and fourteen National Merit Scholarship commended students. Mean SAT scores were 614 verbal and 640 math. 80% of those taking AP examinations received a grade of 3 or higher. About 80% of graduates continue their education, including attendance at prestigious universities.

Publications

Brighton is one of the only schools in the Rochester area that allows its publications to hold permanent office spaces.

Languages

Brighton students are offered a wide array of courses in languages other than English, including:

The arts

In March 2007, Brighton High School students acted in a one-night only shadow production of Our Town at Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York. Directed by a BHS 11th grade English teacher, Judy Shomper, the play provided an opportunity for the students to make new bonds with professional actors after viewing several rehearsals and the professional final product.

The musicals at BHS were directed by Larry Dugan for a number of years starting in 1986.

In fall 2007, Senior Kyle Glickman, one of Shomper's students, won a Rochester youth literature contest held by Geva Theater with his short play The Country That Failed to Fight. (A French Production)

Brighton High School has more than 20 musical groups, ranging from Jazz Band to Crazy Pitches, a co-ed a cappella group. The Crazy Pitches are a favorite group of students at the school, and their annual show, "Pitch Black", is a highly anticipated event each year. Brighton High School flourishes instrumentally under the direction of Therese Schmid, Michael Struzik and Cheryl Guth, and each year, they lead many musical groups in instrumental ensembles, musicals and other events for the school. Many students take part in the local Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and the Hochestein Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Brighton High School is always represented in these groups with many talented student musicians. Some of the notable past student musicians are Paul Nam (clarinet), Elaine Cho (flute), Sebastian Henshaw (percussion), Malcolm Williams (trombone), Evan Hart (French horn) and Abby Holub (violin).

In 2009, Brighton's Jazz Appreciation Club founded Bagelfest, an early-morning festival dedicated to the appreciation of jazz music while enjoying hundreds of bagels. More than 150 students, along with an assortment of BHS faculty, gathered in the band room on May 29 for the event. Bagelfest included a live broadcast on Brighton's student-run Morning Show. "I've never felt so proud," declared Jonah Smith, president of Jazz Appreciation Club. "Everyone had a great time, and their donations really showed their enthusiasm." Bagelfest attendees donated enough money to fully cover the cost of the festival. In the years to come, the Jazz Appreciation Club hopes to raise enough money to donate all proceeds to various charitable organizations that expand jazz literacy in younger generations.

In 2012, Brighton High School put on Dead Man Walking, chronicling Sister Helen Prejean's accompaniment of convicted killer Matthew Poncelet through Death Row. DazMann Still (Matthew Poncelet) and Hannah Geller (Sister Helen Prejean), along with their fellow cast members, began rehearsing the play in May of the previous school year, due to the heavy subject material and emotional gravity. During rehearsal of this play, many classes discussed the death penalty and justice system as it applied to their subjects. English classes studied works about death row inmates and students in Law and Government studied New York's laws regarding capital punishment of inmates. After the opening performance on October 26, a forum was held with two lawyers discussing the death penalty.

For the 2014-2015 season, Brighton High School put on Is He Dead? by Mark Twain for the fall 2014 performance, Shrek The Musical for the winter 2015 performance, and in the spring of 2015 will be putting on both the male and female versions of The Odd Couple in April. [10][11]

The Brighton High School Morning Show

In 1991, The Morning Show was created at BHS by producers Bennett Killmer and Joe Nussbaum, with the help of a teacher, Richard Tschorke. Nussbaum went on to direct the short film George Lucas in Love, and the feature films Sleepover and Sydney White starring Amanda Bynes. Tschorke was the adviser to the club for twenty years. The show originally only had a few small cameras. Since then, it has grown to include two Ikegami professional cameras, upgraded from Lyric Digiscribe by the Chyron Corporation to CG-500 by Datavideo (2015) for character generation, a Mackie VLZ- PRO 1604 audio mixer board, and an ATEM 1 M/E Switcher from Blackmagic Design (2014). The Morning Show continues to be a professional and quality program with the supervision of the new advisor Mr. Chris French who took over in the late 2000's. The Morning Show continues to modernize using more up-to-date equipment and resources, thanks to the help of member Ian Stroszeck (BHS Class of 2017). In the 2014 - 2015 academic year, Ian Stroszeck went on to create a brand-new, interactive website for the show. The new website has greatly helped others send announcements. In the 1986–1987 school year, Brighton Beat, a precursor to The Morning Show, was produced. This show included one news and one interview show each week.

Athletics

The 1971 boys' soccer team under coach Clarence Mepham won the sectionals, beating rival Pittsford in the final match 1-0 on a frozen field. Notable about that playoffs was the semi-final matches against Gates-Chili. The first game ended in a 0–0 tie, after four sudden-death five-minute overtimes. The next day, the teams played again, also ending in a 1–1 tie, with another four sudden-death five-minute overtimes. The two exhausted teams took a day off, and then came back for a third game, which Brighton won 3-1, Gary Lawton scoring twice. The games were written about in a Scorecard item in Sports Illustrated a few weeks later. The noted Brighton graduate and professional soccer player and coach David Sarachan was the left striker for that team.

The boys' lacrosse team won the 2004 sectional championship.

In the 2006 season, the boys' volleyball team went to sectional finals, beaten by Victor in the final game.

The girls' lacrosse team has won 12 sectional titles and one state championship in the past 14 years (as of 2011).

John Dugan's school record setting performance of 1:55.0 at the 1989 NYSPHSAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 800 meters stood for nearly twenty years. In 2007, Mike Geary set new records for both the 800 meter (1:54) and the 1600 meter (4:19).

Brighton's eternally modest cross country coach Steve Pulos PhD is a former track All-American at 10,000 meters, Wineglass Marathon champion (2:34), and Lilac Festival 10k champion. Pulos was the individual winner of the prestigious Lilac Festival 10k road race in 1980 with a time of 30:24, although he would never personally admit to any of his running accomplishments. To put this monster run into perspective, the former American record holder at 5k, Matt Centrowicz, won this race two years later. Pulos's time beats several later individual winners, such as Scott Bagley, Todd Reeser and Tom Haxton (perennial Rochester road racing champion, University of Rochester All-American, and University of Chicago All-American, respectively). Pulos team's has won eight Section V Championships in track/cross country during his coaching tenure at Brighton High.

In 2006, Zack Ellis (103 sophomore) went to states and placed second

In 2007, two members of the Brighton varsity wrestling team went to states, Joey Disalvo (215) and Zach Elis (112), a senior and a junior respectively.

In 2008, Zack Ellis (119) returned to states with another senior, Matt Mahon (285) who made all-state.

The boys' and girls' cross-country team were New York State Champions in 2004.

The girls' Alpine ski team won the NYS crown in 2005.

The boys' basketball team produced a 17-3 record in 2007 and advanced into the Monroe County Tournament as the number 1 seed for the AA division. Five players were selected to the Monroe County 2007 All-Star Team (Joe Reed, Brad Cronister, Connor Dever, Dan Holtzman, Brandon Burris).

The boys' baseball team made it to the sectional championships in 2006 where they lost to rival Pittsford Sutherland

The boys' swim team sent several swimmers to the state competition in 2007 and again in 2010, and won sectional titles in 2012, 2011, and 2009.

The boys' diving team sent Devin Zdanowski to the New York State Diving Championships in 2010 after taking first place in the 2010 Section V Championship meet.

The boys' bowling team won its first Division III title in 2007. Richard Farrington made the All Section 5 composite team for states that year.

The Brighton crew team has produced many Division 1 rowers at schools such as Annapolis, Georgetown, Princeton, Stanford, Wisconsin, and Yale. The Boys Crew team won the NYS Championship points trophy in 2005. The boys' lightweight four won the NYS Championship in 2005, placed third in 2006, and placed second in 2007. The boys' double won the NYS Championship in both 2005 and 2007. The boys' double with Henry Fitts and Aidan Marsh went to Nationals in 2007.

In 2009, the boys' track and field team won its first Sectional Title. The team prevailed after trading leads with Pittsford Mendon throughout the day. The Barons secured their title when tenth seeded Philip Cooper won the 200m by 3 hundredths of a second.

In 2011, the Brighton Barons boys' soccer team won their third sectional title after defeating Aquinas in the Class A finals 2-0. They then defeated East Aurora of Buffalo 4-0 to win the Western New York Regional title, which gave them a place in the 2011 State Championship tournament in Middletown, New York. The Barons lost to Maine-Endwell in the semi-finals, where they lost in penalty kicks 4-5 after they tied 1-1 in regulation. They ended the season 13-4-4. The boys' soccer team won another title in 2012, when they defeated the eighth in the nation, and rival Pittsford Mendon, after Mendon swept them in regular season play. They beat Mendon 3-1. They lost in the Regional game to Williamsville East 2-0.

The boys' volleyball team won sectionals for the first time in 2012 and reached the State-Semis.

The girls' soccer team beat Aquinas (1-0) for the sectional crown. They advanced to the State-Semis for the first time in school history where they lost 1-0 to Jamesville-Dewitt.

The girls' Field Hockey team in 2013 beat Pittsford Sutherland (2-0) for the sectional title. The team went to regional championship and won (2-0) against Amherst Central to advance to the Semi-Finals. The team then faced Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, Brighton won (1-0). Brighton advanced to the finals where they lost to Lakeland (0-7).

Extracurricular activities

Many of Brighton's extracurricular teams have performed well in many competitions:

Notable alumni

Noted faculty

References

  1. ↑ "NYSED Report Cards" (PDF). Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  2. ↑ "BHS Program of Studies" (PDF). Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ "Brighton named national Gold Medal HS". Democrat and Chronicle. 1 December 2007. Retrieved 1 December 2007.
  5. ↑ "Trapezoid Website".
  6. ↑ "Brighton High School publications earn honors". Brighton Pittsford Post. November 5, 2010. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  7. ↑ "Crossroads Website".
  8. ↑ "Galaxy Website".
  9. ↑ "Brighton Performing Arts".
  10. ↑ arts.bcsd.org
  11. ↑ http://www.bcsd.org/news.cfm?story=2337&school=0
  12. ↑ "Brighton High School". Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  13. ↑ http://teachersites.schoolworld.com/webpages/MCML/files/february%202013-14%20booklet.pdf
  14. ↑ http://www.nysfbla.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2013-SLC-Award-Winners.pdf
  15. ↑ http://www.nysenvirothon.net/2013_Score_Sheet.pdf
  16. ↑ "Rochester Chess League 1". Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  17. ↑ http://www.nymasterminds.com/program/titles.html
  18. ↑ http://www.nymasterminds.com/league/2014states.html
  19. ↑ ""Richard Ben Cramer, award-winning journalist and Brighton native, dies," The Associated Press, Tuesday, January 8, 2013". Democrat and Chronicle. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  20. ↑ Obama energy adviser Jason Grumet talks climate, coal, and green jobs | Grist
  21. ↑ "Emmys forecast, Local Connection", Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, September 14, 2007, page 3C
  22. ↑ Bio Jess Klein
  23. ↑ "Internet Movie Database - Joe Nussbaum". IMDb. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  24. ↑ "Kinsman Physics Productionsllast=Kinsman". Kinsman Physics Productions. Retrieved 2 January 2012. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  25. ↑ "Brighton Central School District". Retrieved 4 October 2014.

External links