Brighton High School (New York)
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Brighton High School is located in Rochester, New York. The current principal is Nancy Hackett.
In 1988, Brighton was listed in the book High Schools USA as the #1 public school in the country. The school has continually appeared on Newsweek Magazine's Top 100 Public High Schools list. In 1998, it achieved its highest ranking on the Newsweek list, taking the 5th spot. In 2006, it placed 96th.
Since the late 90s, a number of first-rate teachers have retired or resigned, such as Bill McLaughlin, Steve ("Sweaty Steve" as he liked to be called) Whitman, Stewart McBean, and Principal Bill Maxwell. The Advanced Placement program has suffered as a result. However, master teachers Mr. Noto, Ms. Satter and Mr. Fredenberg remain. Brighton does offer Advanced Placement(AP) classes in numerous subjects, including Calculus, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Economics, Government and Politics, United States History, World History, European History, Music Theory, Statistics, Psychology, English Literature, English Language, Spanish, French, and German. It was one of the first schools in the state to offer 5 courses in the Russian language, and was also one of the first to sample the AP Russian pilot exam. Brighton's Physics department remains highly esteemed. Ted Kinsman, who teaches Physics B and C, is a world-renowned photographer. Brad Allen, a Cambridge University graduate, joined Brighton in 2005 and has already been involved in numerous physics related extracurricular activities.
Brighton is unique in the sense that it is a suburb of the city of Rochester, yet also part of the city itself. As a result, there is a great amount of ethnic and racial diversity. The high school is also noted for its urban suburban program that allows inner city students to enroll in Brighton. The school is also mostly liberal and has a large Jewish student population.
The quality of education at Brighton is reflected by the fact that every year, a large number of students attend some of the nations most prestigious universities. Many graduates from the last two classes are currently attending Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, Columbia University, University of Chicago, Duke University, Brown University, Williams College, Syracuse University, Middlebury College, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, and Monroe Community College.
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[edit] Languages
Brighton is unique in that it offers many different languages to study. A list of languages and who teaches them are as follows:
German Susan Gillespie, MaryAnne Walter
Spanish Melissa Manghietr, Dorene Estrada, Lori Boyd, Christine Speer, Thomas De Fiore, Viviam Clark
French Virgina Schults
Russian Oksana Burr
Latin Virgina Schults
[edit] The Arts
Brighton High School students, in March of 2007, acted in the production of Our Town at Geva Theater in Rochester, New York. Directed by BHS's own Judy Shomper, 11th grade English teacher, the play was a huge success and students were even asked for an encore performance.
Brighton High School is also a high supporter of musical art. With over 20 different musical groups, ranging from Jazz Band to Crazy Pitches (featured on CBS morning show December 2007), BHS has a wide variety of talented groups.
Teachers of the arts at Brighton High School are as follows:
Brass/Percussion/Wind Instruments Therese Schmid, Michael Struzik
String Instruments Cheryl Guth
Acting Judy Shomper
Choral Groups Jason Berger
[edit] Athletics
The Brighton Girls Lacrosse program is recognized nationally for its consistency in producing Division 1 players. Those schools include: Northwestern (Hilary Bowen and Danielle Spencer) Duke (Alex Ryan) Yale (Sarah Ballatori and Arianna Papier) UCONN (Katie Parker). The Girls Lacrosse team has won its division for 12 years running and has made numerous trips to the NYS Championship.
John Dugan’s school record setting performance of 1:55.0 at the 1989 NYSPHSAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 800 meters still stands nearly twenty years later.
Coach Huckle and Coach Puljos led the boys and girls cross-country team to the State Championships in 2004
The Girls Alpine Ski Team won the NYS crown in 2004
The Boys Lacrosse team won the 2004 sectional championship and produced Division 1 star James Ryan (Yale)
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 is a powerhouse in monroe county competition. Under the coaching of Jason Wasserman the boys made it to the sectional championships in 2006 where they lost to rival Pittsford Sutherland
The Boys Swim team is regarded as one of the top teams in New York State sending numerous swimmers to the state competition in 2007
[edit] Trivia
- Saturday Night Live performer Kristen Wiig graduated from Brighton in 1991.
- Shirley Jackson briefly attended Brighton.
- PAX Network founder Bill Paxon attended Brighton High School.
- Ardis Mangione-Lindley, a Social Studies teacher, is the daughter of Gap Mangione and niece of Chuck Mangione. She is married to New York Supreme Court justice Stephen Lindley.
- David T. Kearns, former Xerox CEO and deputy Secretary of Education, attended Brighton
- Brighton High School's button club has raised over $19000 for cancer awarness in honor of Jonathon B. Angelone.
- American singer and actor, Casathious Jones, currently attends Brighton High School
- The School's Television Show "The Morning Show" produced Adam Sax (executive producer 2005) currently writing a pilot for HBO and worked over the summer with Phil from Disney Channel's "Phil of the future" as well as Kristin's Boyfriend from Laguna Beach.
Social Studies Teacher Dan Wilmot's family owns and operates Wilmorite Construction and established the James P Wilmot Cancer Center at Strong Memorial Hospital.
