Brighton High School (Rochester, New York)

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.[2] 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, Princeton University, the University of Rochester, Stanford University, Georgetown University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[3]

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 an incorporated town adjacent to the southeast border of the city of Rochester. The high school has an urban-suburban program that allows students from the City of Rochester to attend Brighton High School.

Trophy case in the front lobby

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]

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

• 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. It 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.[10]
• 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.[11] The show started streaming over the internet exclusively starting in the 2015-2016 school year.[12] The Morning Show is regarded by some as a professional and quality program, and continues to modernize using more up-to-date equipment and resources each year.

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

• French
• German
• Spanish

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. Brighton High School also flourishes instrumentally and vocally under the direction of Therese Schmid, Michael Struzik Sarah Staebell and Rachel Lauber, 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.

Summer 2017 production of High School Musical curtain call

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, Les Misérables (musical) for their winter performance and Our Town by Thorton Wilder for their spring show. For the 2018-2019 school year, 45 Seconds from Broadway by Neil Simon, Newsies and These Shining Lives were presented.

The 1971 boys' soccer team 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. The games were written about in a Scorecard item in Sports Illustrated a few weeks later.

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).

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.

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' bowling team won its first Division III title in 2007.

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.

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.

Brighton Barons line up for a field goal attempt against the Greece Olympia/Greece Odyssey Spartans

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' 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.

The girl's brighton nordic (cross-country) ski team has held the Section V and state titles for two consecutive years, beginning in 2019.

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

• Brighton Science Olympiad
  • The team was regional champion from 2010 to 2014.
  • In the year 2014, Brighton medalled in every single event.[13]
• Brighton Math Team[14]
  • The team was Monroe County league champion for three years in a row.
• Brighton Model UN
  • Brighton won best delegation more than 3 years in a row. About 2/3 of all chairs and 3/4 of the Secretariat at the Hilton 2014 Conference as well as the 2015 UNAR conference were from Brighton High School.
• Brighton FBLA [15]
• Brighton Envirothon[16]
  • Brighton frequently placed multiple teams in the top 5 at the Monroe County Envirothon. In 2013, Brighton sent a team to the states competition, placing 8th.
• Brighton Chess Team [17]
  • The team was Rochester League 1 champion for over 3 years in a row, and won 2nd place at the 2013 playoffs.
• Brighton Speech and Debate Team
  • In its first year, 2014, the Brighton team medaled in multiple categories.
  • Four Public Forum debate teams represented Brighton in the 2016 New York State Forensic League State Tournament in Hofstra University in Long Island. The teams were given a proclamation from the Monroe County Legislature for their achievements.
• Brighton Masterminds
  • The team was named Rochester regional champion in 1995, 1997, 2005, 2014, 2015, and 2019.[18]
  • In 2014 and 2015, the team placed second in the state championship meet.[19]

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.

• Richard Ben Cramer (1967), Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author[20]
• Tom Cross (1987), film editor, winner of 2014 Best Film Editing Oscar (Whiplash), nominated for 2016 Best Film Editing Oscar (La La Land)[21]
• Winston Duke (2004), actor, appeared on Modern Family, Person of Interest, Marvel's Black Panther and 2018's Avengers: Infinity War[22]
• 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." [23]
• Hank Greenwald (1953), sportscaster[24]
• Tom Hamburger (1970), journalist, among a group of journalists at the Washington Post credited with a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for investigative reporting[25]
• Shirley Jackson (1934), author
• Jess Klein (1991), singer-songwriter [26]
• 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
• Dani Michaeli (1987), lead writer and member of SpongeBob SquarePants team nominated for a 2007 Creative Arts Emmy[27]
• Jenna Mourey (2004), YouTube star and blogger
• 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.[28]
• Arthur Schneider (1948) four-time Emmy Award winning television editor
• Kristen Wiig (1991), actress and comedian, cast member of Saturday Night Live from 2005–2012, and an Academy Award and BAFTA nominee for Best Original Screenplay for her film Bridesmaids
• Rodin Younessi (1986), professional race car driver

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brighton High School (Brighton, New York).

• Brighton High School website
• 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