Principal Dr. Thomas Hall Enrollment 1154 (2011-2012) School color(s) Navy, White and Gold Phone +1 585-242-5000 Mascot Barons | Grades 9-12 Average class size 290 Publication Galaxy Number of students 1,154 (2011–2012) | |
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Similar Pittsford Sutherland High Sch, Penfield High School, Mendon High School, McQuaid IgKNIGH FRC Tea, Eastridge Senior High Sch | ||
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.
Contents
Overview
In 2015, Brighton offered Advanced Placement (AP) classes in numerous subjects, including Calculus (AB and BC), Biology, Physics (1, 2, and C), Chemistry, Environmental Science, Economics, Government and Politics, Psychology, United States History, European History, Music Theory, Statistics, Studio Art, English Literature, English Language, Spanish, French, German, and Computer Science. Of the 1094 AP exams administered to students, about 83% scored a 3 or higher.
The class of 2015 graduated 296 students. There were eight National Merit Scholarship finalists, eight semi-finalists, and nine commended students. For the class of 2015, about 89% of graduates chose to go onto high education, with the majority going to four-year colleges. Brighton regularly sends numerous graduates to top colleges and universities, including alumni currently at the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Harvard University, Williams College, the University of Rochester, Stanford University, Georgetown University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Many Brighton students comment on Brighton's diversity, with about 28% minority enrollment, Brighton's academic feel and environment, and Brighton's commitment to deep learning beyond simply memorization to prepare for a test. For example, the AP US History course at Brighton requires that each student participate in a debate regarding a topic in US history and write an extended academic paper about the topic. This assignment requires an extensive amount of work, rhetorical skill, academic research, and creativity.
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.
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.
In 2015, the website Startclass published a list of the top high school in each state, with Brighton High School being their top school for New York. The same year, the website Finder.com compared high school rankings to property values to determine "the better value represented by the school and area combination." They placed Brighton High School as being first in New York in terms of value, ahead of rivals Pittsford-Mendon and Pittsford-Sutherland.
Publications and productions
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, then-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 the Jazz Band to the Crazy Pitches, a co-ed a cappella group. But most people prefer the all-male a cappella group, Macapella. Brighton High School also 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.
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. 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. 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 2016-2017 season, Brighton High School put on Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim for the fall 2016 performance, and is currently in the process of rehearsing Les Misérables (musical) for the winter 2017 performance.
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).
Cross-country coach Steve Pulos, Ph.D, 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.
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).
The boys' bowling team got new crotchless shorts to show their true spirits in early 2015
The boys' tennis team in 2015 beat Pittsford Mendon (7-0) for the sectional title. The team successfully went to nationals and lost in the finals.
The boys' volleyball team in 2015 won states.
Extracurricular activities
Many of Brighton's extracurricular teams have performed well in many competitions:
Brighton offers other extracurriculars, including Mock Trial, the Gay-Straight Alliance, Break Dance Club, Friends of Rachel, Recycling Club, Young Democrats, and Young Republicans. New clubs are formed every year, providing students a variety of activities to partake in.