Brookline High School

Brookline High School
Location
115 Greenough Street
Brookline, MA 02445
Coordinates 42°20′0″N 71°7′48″W / 42.33333°N 71.13000°W / 42.33333; -71.13000Coordinates: 42°20′0″N 71°7′48″W / 42.33333°N 71.13000°W / 42.33333; -71.13000
Information
Type Public High School
Established 1843
Headmaster Deborah Holman
Faculty 145.5 (on FTE basis)[1]
Grades 9–12, Pre–K
Enrollment 1,905 (as of 2014–15)[1]
Student to teacher ratio 12.6 [1]
Color(s) Red      and blue     
Mascot Spartan Warrior
Team name Warriors
Average SAT scores 589 verbal
616 math
589 writing
1794 total (2014-2015)[2]
Website bhs.brookline.k12.ma.us

Brookline High School is a four-year public high school in the town of Brookline, Massachusetts. As of the 2011–12 school year, 1,804 students were enrolled in the high school, served by 150 teachers (on an FTE basis). The student to teacher ratio was about 11.6 to 1.[1] The students represent 76 nations and speak 31 different languages.

Brookline High School received the Gold Medal for Best High Schools from U.S. News & World Report.[3] In addition, Boston Magazine has frequently ranked BHS as one of the best high schools in Massachusetts for academic performance; in 2008, it was ranked top in the area.[4][5]

All students at Brookline High School must complete three credits' worth of electives, with the intent of fostering student creativity. A newly opened film program, facilitated through Brookline Access Television (BATV), enables students to produce their own films with state-of-the-art technology.

Academics

In 2010, Boston Magazine ranked Brookline High as the 7th best public school in the state.[6] The magazine ranked Brookline High School the number one Massachusetts public school in 2008.[7]

Although the Advanced Placement (AP) program at BHS is smaller than at other high schools, it has grown dramatically over the past 10 years. In 2009, 370 students took 679 AP exams, and 93% of students scored “3” or above on these exams.[8]

Brookline High School does not calculate a weighted GPA for its students. Students receive only an unweighted GPA out of 4.0, so grades in Advanced Placement classes do not contribute any more to a student's GPA than grades in Honors and Standard level classes. Furthermore, grades from freshmen year are not calculated in one's GPA, as students are still making the transition from elementary school.

Most advanced placement classes are only available to Juniors and Seniors. Honors level classes are considered rigorous, and students who excel in these classes often receive top scores on SAT Subject Tests. Students who decide to take AP level classes are encouraged not to take more than 2 or 3 of them at one time, as these classes feature difficult research projects and labs in addition to standardized material.

Athletics

Brookline High School features the largest interscholastic athletics program in New England, with 71 teams in 40 sports.[8] Some of the atypical sports include curling, golf, Ultimate disc crew, sailing and rugby.

Since 1894, the Brookline High football team plays rival Newton North High School in the traditional Thanksgiving Day game. This is one of the oldest high school football rivalries in Massachusetts and on the List of high school football rivalries (100 years+).

In 2007, Brookline's boys cross country team made history by winning the first ever Nike Team Nationals northeast regional meet by just one point over Danbury High School at Bowdin Park, NY.[9] They went on to place 7th at Nike Team Nationals in Portland, OR.[10] In addition to the 2007 campaign, in the 2006 and 2009 seasons the team placed 3rd at the Massachusett's Division 1 State Meet, in 2005 they finished 2nd, and on November 20, 2010, won their second state championship giving them their fifth top 3 finish in six years and second 1st place finish in four. On November 19, 2011, they won their third state championship, for a run of 3 championships in five years.

In 2005, Brookline High School's Rugby Football team captured the DI New England Championship, its first since 1987. In 2009, the team captured the DII title in the NERFU tournament in Pembroke, New Hampshire. The rugby players defeated Belmont 29-0 to win the New England title for the second time in five years (first in DII). In 2014, the rugby team again won the DII rugby state championship against Milton High School under head coach Craig Mackenzie.

School Within A School

School Within A School (SWS) is an alternative education program based in Brookline High School.[11] Made up of about 120 students, SWS promotes democratic education in the form of a Town Meeting every Wednesday. Students enjoy smaller class sizes, that are of mixed skill levels, and do not use the traditional "AP/Honors/Standard" system used by the rest of the school. Furthermore, students refer to all SWS staff on a first name basis. A number of committees, created during Town Meeting or outside of class, convene during the student's free blocks. The program governs itself during Town Meeting, and teachers and students participate in a fair and equal democratic community. Brookline's SWS is very well known amongst Liberal Arts Colleges (LACs); in recent years, students in SWS have received admission to Haverford, Vassar, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Amherst, and other selective LACs. Students involved in SWS frequently partake in social awareness campaigns, such as in school "sit-downs" and staging protests outside the school.

The Sagamore

The Sagamore is a school-affiliated publication (newspaper) produced monthly by the students of Brookline High School. The newspaper is independent; the production is funded entirely through the means of advertisement. It receives no funding from the high school.[12] Over the past few years, the paper has publicized and discussed issues in and around the school, including racism and teenage pregnancy. The school is noted for its tradition of high tolerance of sensitive topics discussed in the newspaper. In 2011, New England Scholastic Press Association awarded The Sagamore "Highest Achievement" in Newspaper Class I category.[13]

Notable incidents

Members of Fred Phelps' anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church protested at the 2005 graduation ceremony against Brookline High's strong tolerance of homosexuality. They were met by dozens of supporters and counter-protesters.[14] Members from the Westboro Baptist Church protested again in 2009. They were met with about 2,000 counter-protesters, including students and members of Brookline High School's staff and PTO, and various other groups from surrounding areas. Surrounded and barricaded by police and deans of Brookline High, the 'silent, not violent' counter-protest (organized by the school's GSA) took place with no altercations between the two groups.

Pop culture references

Before renovations in the late '90s, Brookline High School was used as the school in The Next Karate Kid starring Hilary Swank. In the movie, a bell can be heard between classes, although the school has no bell. The outside of the school was shot as the high school in the short lived sitcom Raising Dad starring Bob Saget and as the high school Paul Rudd works at it in The Oh in Ohio starring Parker Posey, Paul Rudd, Danny DeVito, Mischa Barton and Liza Minnelli. Some exterior shots of the school was used for TV series Do Over. Brookline High School is also the school of Evan Rachel Wood's character, Lucy, in Julie Taymor's 2007 Beatles film, Across the Universe. Images of Brookline high are also used in a Saturday Night Live sketch entitled "Malibu High". The Dean's List filmed a music video for their song, "I'll be Ok", inside of Brookline High. Brookline High School is also briefly viewed in the hit sitcom, Scandal starring Kerry Washington.

Demographics

Students come from 76 nations and speak 31 languages. 26 percent of students speak English as a second language.

Architecture

The school has Symbolic Panels made by the sculptor John A. Wilson.[15]

Notable alumni

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 , Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Accessed June 13, 2012.
  2. ↑ http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/state_report/sat_perf.aspx
  3. ↑ USNews. Accessed June 13, 2012.
  4. ↑ Matt Rocheleau, Boston Globe, "Newton high schools make Boston Magazine's top 10", Boston.com, August 26, 2009.
  5. ↑ Best Public High Schools chart, Boston Magazine, September 2008, archived at the Wayback Machine August 30, 2008.
  6. ↑ Boston Magazine Public School Ranking Chart 2010 URL accessed on July 26, 2011
  7. ↑ Boston Magazine High School Rankings. Accessed June 13, 2012.
  8. 1 2 Brookline Schools website URL accessed on June 2, 2006
  9. ↑ "Webcast: Nike Team Nationals 2007", DyeStat. Accessed February 16, 2008.
  10. ↑ "Oregon Runners: Nike Team Nationals", Nike Team Nationals. Accessed February 22, 2008.
  11. ↑ http://www.brookline.k12.ma.us/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=212&Itemid=311
  12. ↑ http://www.thesagonline.com/2011/08/mission/
  13. ↑ http://www.thesagonline.com/2011/09/awards/
  14. ↑ News & Features | NOT IN KANSAS
  15. ↑ James Cameron. More About New Glasgow. 1974. p. 194
  16. ↑ Lashinsky, Adam (September 28, 2009). "The Enforcer". Fortune 160 (6): 117–124.
  17. ↑ Adrian, Jack. "Obituary: Hugh B. Cave; Prolific writer of pulp (`pure' supernatural, `Spicy', SF, romance, westerns, hard- and soft-boiled detective fiction, weird-menace and shudder- pulp) over eight decades.", The Independent, June 30, 2004. Accessed April 18, 2008. "His astonishing career spanned all but the first couple of decades of the 20th century and into the 21st, his first published writing, as a 15-year-old student at Brookline High School, Massachusetts, being a short story in The Boston Globe entitled 'Retribution'..."
  18. ↑
  19. ↑
  20. ↑ "Fanfares for Michael Dukakis", The New York Times, July 23, 1988. Accessed February 5, 2008. "And then the candidate, once a trumpeter in the Brookline High School band, took the podium and performed his own Fanfare for the Common Man."
  21. 1 2 Beggy, Carol; and Shanahan, Mark. "Monet goes to Vegas; Kerry goes out on the town", The Boston Globe, November 6, 2003. Accessed February 17, 2008.
  22. ↑ Chase, Katie Johnston. "True to his nerd: John Hodgman finds a niche as 'Daily Show' resident expert, mendacious author, and dorky PC", The Boston Globe, September 24, 2006. Accessed December 3, 2007. "Fletcher graduated from Brookline High School a year before he did, and the two have been together since Hodgman was 17."
  23. ↑ Baird, Susanna. "KRAFT CEMENTS HIS LOVE FOR THE OLD ALMA MATER", The Boston Globe, November 14, 2004. Accessed April 18, 2008. "Robert Kraft's hands have pressed down into history. Brookline High School, alma mater of the NFL's winningest owner, has instituted a Hollywood-esque Walk of Fame, complete with concrete handprints. Kraft, "Bobby" to his peers in the BHS class of 1959, is the walk's first inductee."
  24. 1 2 Athletic Hall of Fame, Brookline High School. Accessed February 21, 2008.
  25. ↑ Brozan, Nadine. "Chronicle", The New York Times, March 16, 1993. Accessed April 21, 2008. "The year is being bracketed by two celebratory weekends -- one last June, one this June -- that include class reunions. Last year's event brought more than 2,000 graduates back to the school, including Mr. Wallace, Alan Rachins, a star of "L.A. Law," and former Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts and his wife, Kitty."
  26. ↑ USATF profile for Jonathon Riley, January 10, 2014
  27. ↑ Brookline High School Alumni Newsletter, Winter 2006
  28. ↑ Brozan, Nadine. "Chronicle", The New York Times, March 16, 1993. Accessed February 5, 2008. "MIKE WALLACE is lending a hand to his old school, Brookline High School, at a benefit -- unusual for a Massachusetts public school -- in New York tomorrow evening. Mr. Wallace, class of '35, will interview the school's acting headmaster, Dr. ROBERT J. WEINTRAUB, at a cocktail party that is expected to draw 60 or so Brookline graduates to the University Club on West 54th Street."
  29. ↑ Smith, Jessie Carney. Notable Black American Women: Book 2. USA: Gale Research, 1991. 503. Print.

External links

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