Brighton High School (Rochester, New York) Explained

Brighton High School
Streetaddress:	1150 Winton Road
City:	Rochester
State:	New York
Zipcode:	14618
Country:	United States
Coordinates:	43.1233°N -77.5667°W
District:	Brighton Central School District
Principal:	Thomas Hall
Average Class Size:	290
Graduates:	96%
Grades:	9-12
Yearbook:	Crossroads
Publication:	Galaxy
Newspaper:	Trapezoid
Enrollment:	1,243 (2022–23)^[1]
Ratio:	11.66
Teaching Staff:	106.56 (FTE)

Brighton High School, commonly abbreviated BHS, is a public high school located in Brighton, an incorporated town adjacent to the southeast border of Rochester, New York, United States. It offers a comprehensive curriculum for students in grades 9–12. It is part of the Brighton Central School District.

Academics

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, Princeton University, the University of Rochester, the University of Maryland, Stanford University, Georgetown University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[2]

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, Statistics, Studio Art, English Literature, English Language, Spanish, French, German, and Computer Science.^[3]

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.^[4]

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.^[5]

Publications and productions

• Trapezoid is Brighton High School's monthly school newspaper. Sections include news, feature, opinion, in depth and sports.^[6] The newspaper has repeatedly received a number of awards, including first place in the Bertram Freed Memorial Award Competition, and New York's Best Newspaper and Best Online Publication from the Empire State School Press Association for several years in a row.^[7]
• Crossroads, Brighton High School's yearbook, was founded in 1933. It is distributed at BHS's annual Springfest.^[8]
• Galaxy, created in 1954, is Brighton's art and literary magazine. Galaxy continues its tradition of holding meetings at students' homes on Sunday evenings.^[9] Galaxy is entirely student-created, with the help of advisor and art teacher Debra Burger and is printed locally. In 2009, the magazine received a First Place with Special Merit award from the American Scholastic Press Association for its article on French sub ordinance. That same year, Jessy Randall (BHS class of 1988) published a young adult novel about Galaxy, The Wandora Unit.^[10] Galaxy received the Gold/All New York Award, as well as the Award for Originality from the annual ESSPA (Empire State Scholastic Press Association) Conference in 2011. Many individual Galaxy members won Gold awards in their respective fields at this conference as well.^[11]
• The Morning Show began in the 1986–1987 school year with Brighton Beat, a precursor to The Morning Show. This show included one news and one interview show each week. In 1991, The Morning Show was officially 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 advisor to the club for twenty years, later to be succeeded by Chris French as the new club advisor. The show originally only had a few small cameras. Since then, it has grown to include two Blackmagic Design studio cameras, a Behringer Audio Mixer, a graphics program from Datavideo called CG-500 and a Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Switcher.^[12] The show started streaming over the internet exclusively starting in the 2015-2016 school year.^[13]

Extracurricular activities

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

• Brighton Science Olympiad
  • The team was regional champion from 2010 to 2014.
  • In the year 2014, Brighton medalled in every single event.^[14]
• Brighton Math Team^[15]
• Brighton FBLA ^[16]
• Brighton Envirothon^[17]
• Brighton Chess Team ^[18]
  • The team was the upstate NY champions in 2022 and 2023.^[19]
  • Brighton was also the 2023 central NY champion,^[20] with a 4th place finish in the state scholastic championship.^[21]
• Brighton Masterminds
  • The team was named Rochester regional champion in 1995, 1997, 2005, 2014, 2015, and 2019.^[22]
  • In 2014 and 2015, the team placed second in the state championship meet.^[23]

Brighton offers other extracurriculars, including Mock Trial, Prepworks Tutoring, Catalysts for Change, Gender and Sexuality Alliance Club, Climate Club, Brighton On Board (a board game focused club), Friends of Rachel, and Bruins e-Sports Club.^[24]

Notable alumni

• Ernie Clement (2014), baseball player
• Richard Ben Cramer (1967), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and screenwriter^[25]
• Tom Cross (1987), Academy Award-winning film editor^[26]
• Winston Duke (2004), actor, appeared on Modern Family, Person of Interest, Marvel's Black Panther and 2018's ^[27]
• Tina Monshipour Foster (1993), lawyer and director of the International Justice Network, focusing on providing "free legal assistance to victims of torture, illegal imprisonment, and political and religious persecution."^[28]
• Hank Greenwald (1953), sportscaster^[29]
• Tom Hamburger (1970), journalist, among a group of journalists at The Washington Post credited with a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for investigative reporting^[30]
• Shirley Jackson (1934), author
• Jess Klein (1991), singer-songwriter ^[31]
• Jon Kolko (1996), designer and author
• Hudson Leick (1987), actor
• Josh Lewin (1986), sportscaster
• Matt Medved (2004), editor-in-chief of Spin
• Dennis Mepham (1976), professional soccer player that played in the NASL and the MISL
• Jenna Marbles (2004), YouTube star and blogger^[32]
• Joe Nussbaum (1991), film director
• Thomas Richards (1961), former mayor of Rochester, NY
• William Scandling (1940), businessman who founded Saga Corporation, a food service company whose remnants are now part of Sodexo.^[33]
• Arthur Schneider (1948) four-time Emmy Award winning television editor
• Kristen Wiig (1991), actress and comedian, cast member of Saturday Night Live from 2005 to 2012, and an Academy Award and BAFTA nominee for Best Original Screenplay for her film Bridesmaids^[34]
• Rodin Younessi (1986), professional race car driver
• Ilya Kaminsky (1996), Soviet-American poet

External links

• • Brighton Central School District website
• NY State Education Department - The New York State School Report Card for Brighton High School 2006
• Famous Brighton High School alumni

Notes and References

1. Web site: BRIGHTON HIGH SCHOOL. National Center for Education Statistics. April 7, 2024.
2. Web site: School Report. https://web.archive.org/web/20160115225619/http://www.bcsd.org/files/filesystem/2015-2016%20profile.pdf. dead. 2016-01-15.
3. Web site: BHS Program of Studies. https://web.archive.org/web/20150923182913/http://www.bcsd.org/files/filesystem/Program%20of%20Studies.pdf. dead. 23 September 2015. 4 January 2012.
4. http://rocnow.com/article/local-news/20106260330
5. News: Brighton named national Gold Medal HS . Democrat and Chronicle . 1 December 2007 . 1 December 2007 .
6. Web site: Trapezoid Website. https://web.archive.org/web/20020715030555/http://bcsd.org/trapezoid/. dead. 2002-07-15.
7. News: Brighton High School publications earn honors . 1 January 2012 . Brighton Pittsford Post . November 5, 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120425231948/http://www.brightonpittsfordpost.com/latestnews/x742798221/Brighton-High-School-publications-earn-honors . 25 April 2012 .
8. Web site: Crossroads Website. https://web.archive.org/web/20040426142525/http://www.bcsd.org/bhs.cfm?subpage=1156. dead. 2004-04-26.
9. Web site: Galaxy Website . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130629064344/http://galaxylitmag.org/ . 2013-06-29 .
10. Web site: Goodreads page for The Wandora Unit.
11. Web site: Brighton Performing Arts. https://web.archive.org/web/20100616024333/http://bcsd.org/webpages/arts/visualarts.cfm?subpage=50404. dead. 2010-06-16.
12. Web site: BHS Morning Show Parts List. 3 July 2017.
13. Web site: The BHS Morning Show Homepage. 3 July 2017.
14. Web site: Brighton High School. 4 October 2014.
15. Web site: Monroe County Math League 2013-2014 . Monroe County Math League . 13 September 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140223193843/http://teachersites.schoolworld.com/webpages/MCML/files/february%202013-14%20booklet.pdf . 23 February 2014 . February 2014.
16. http://www.nysfbla.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2013-SLC-Award-Winners.pdf{{dead link|date=July 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
17. Web site: 2013 New State Envirothon Score Sheet . www.nysenvirothon.net . 13 September 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303235405/http://www.nysenvirothon.net/2013_Score_Sheet.pdf . 3 March 2016 . 2013.
18. Web site: Rochester Chess League 1. 4 October 2014.
19. Web site: BHS Chess Team Wins Championship . 2023-09-30 . www.bcsd.org . en.
20. Web site: US Chess MSA - Cross Table for 8TH ANNUAL CENTRAL NY OPEN! (Event 202210230162) . 2023-09-30 . www.uschess.org.
21. Web site: New York State Scholastic ChampionshipsTeams for Highschool Championship . 2023-09-30 . chessevents.com.
22. Web site: Championships. www.nymasterminds.com.
23. Web site: Archived Document . 2015-01-28 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140814060339/http://www.nymasterminds.com/league/2014states.html . 2014-08-14 .
24. Web site: BHS CLUBS 2021 - 2022. live. 7 February 2022. Brighton Central Schools. https://web.archive.org/web/20220207203241/https://www.bcsd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=28&dataid=64132&FileName=Clubs%20and%20Activities%20Alphabetical%202021-2022.pdf . 2022-02-07 .
25. Web site: "Richard Ben Cramer, award-winning journalist and Brighton native, dies," The Associated Press, Tuesday, January 8, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20141006082828/http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20130108/NEWS01/301080053/Richard-Ben-Cramer-dies?nclick_check=1. dead. 6 October 2014. Democrat and Chronicle. 4 October 2014.
26. Web site: Brighton native Tom Cross wins film editing Oscar-D&C Article-February 23, 2015 The Housing Council at PathStone . www.thehousingcouncil.org . 8 October 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180822214604/http://www.thehousingcouncil.org/news/2015/02/brighton-native-tom-cross-wins-film-editing-oscar-dc-article-february-23-2015/ . 22 August 2018 . dead .
27. Web site: Arnold . Alexis . From Brighton High School to Wakanda: Winston Duke remembers his days in Rochester . WHAM . 17 March 2019 . 22 May 2018.
28. Web site: BSAA/BHS Alumni Hall of Fame. Brighton Schools Alumni Association. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20150810083521/http://www.brightonalumni.org/bsaa-announces-new-hall-of-famers/. 2015-08-10.
29. Web site: Brighton High School loses one of its two great sportscasters, Hank Greenwald '53. Kramer. David. Talker of the Town. October 23, 2018. November 16, 2018.
30. Web site: The Washington Post wins 2 Pulitzer Prizes for reporting on Russian interference and the Senate race in Alabama . The Washington Post. April 16, 2018 . June 28, 2019.
31. http://www.jessklein.com/bio/ Bio Jess Klein
32. Web site: Congrats to a BHS alum!. July 24, 2015. Democrat and Chronicle. Thaler-Carter. Ruth.
33. Web site: Archived Document . 2018-03-29 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080828060248/http://www.brightonalumni.org/documents/06BSAAHoFDinnerProgram.pdf . 2008-08-28 . dead .
34. News: 10 Rochester connections to Saturday Night Live . . 9 September 2023 . en.