BHS Gets Renovation

Brookings High School first opened their doors in the fall of 1967.

Since then, the school's undergone two major phases of contruction.

They have just recently finished their third.

After this phase BHS has a new front office and entry way.

"This is my office, Mrs. Jensen here the assistant principal, and then the activities director offices are here." Principal Paul von Fischer said.

A new commons, kitchen, and servery area.

"Thi is our servery, they call it. Instead of doing a lunch line, you know kinda stand and be slopped, we went to more of a college approach," von Fishcer said.

Guidance office. Main Hallway and a study corner for seniors during their free period.

"A space that was so that we would have an opportunity for students to practice using public space let's say. Like a day room at a college or a common room in a tech school or anything that you're work in a break room at a job. Every place you will find a common room like this and the kids have been treating it very well. We've tried a lounge before and it didn't work. I said, well this isn't really a lounge. The goal, the expectation for students is this is library quiet study space during school hours afterwards, you know, talk with you friends, but be appropriate. And it ha gone very well," von Fischer said.

They have also completed their first update on Bell auditorium since the school first opened.

Along with an updated auditorium, the theater department and tech crews got some new spaces.

Von Fischer said, "People get ready in here. You know, with two sexes changing you want to have two different areas for guys to change. So, maybe some of the guys will grab their clothe and go here. There's also a restroom that' a family restroom that I'd prefer to be open to the public when we have an event and not solely for the use of our theater folks, but if necessary they can hop in there and do a quick change of clothes."

Some classrooms have also gotten Smart Boards very similar to those seen on the college campus.

"Take the pens there, there's a black, red, green, and blue. Pick up the pens that don't write and touch it to the board and the board knows the image on there," von Fisher said.

Even though they've just completed construction, Principal Paul von Fischer can't help but look toward the future.

"Numbers are down. We only have 775 kids in the buliding. So, really, under 200 kids per class. Which is low for Brookings High SChool. We will, in the next five to seven years, get closer to a thousand students in the building. So, we will have some growing pains as we add 200 plus kids to the school."





With this story, I learned that even though you plan on focusing on one point of a story, if that angle doesn't work out, there are many other ways to go about telling the same or a similar story. I think this was my favorite story because I went to BHS and it was nice to see how they've expanded since I went there.

Jaxon's Allergies

Jaxon Groenhoff is a very special five-year-old boy. He lives outside Canby, Minnesota with his three sibling and his parents. Jaxon is very special because he has over ten different allergies.

His mom, Tricia sees the daily challenges when it comes to making sure her son is safe and healthy.

When Jaxon was younger, he had extreme eczema to the point they thought he was allergic to milk, making them switch over to a soy baby formula and he ended up getting very sick from that.

One of Jaxon's allergies is to eggs. He has a rare anaphylactic, aromic reactive allergy to eggs. This means if you crack a raw egg around him his eyes will swell shut, even if he doesn't touch the egg.

Tricia says the hardest part is seeing her son as an outsider because he can't partake in many activities his peers are. Especially now that he's getting old enough for birthday parties and sleep overs.





During this story I learned a great deal about working with children. I had about an hour of video, but I was at their house for about four hours because there was about two hours where the kids were VERY interested in the video camera and definitely wanted to see themselves on film. After they got used to the camera being there, it was a whole lot easier to get the footage I wanted.

Brookings Parking Ban

In 2010, Brookings introduced a share the road, or "sharrow" program allowing bicyclists to ride on the streets alongside cars.

The town posted signs and painted stencils on the roads to make drivers more aware of bicyclists.

South Dakota State University's Student's Association felt this wasn't very safe.

State and Local Government Chairperson Jameson Berreth and other SA members brought a proposal to Brookings City Council.

"We came back said this, we feel, wasn't very effective because the bikers in these bike lane have to share with parked cars, other vehicles. There's not like a a line down to promote that safety and effectiveness of bike lanes," Berreth said.

The proposed parking ban areas were 11th Street from Medary Avenue to 3rd Avenue, 8th Street from 16th Avenue to 20th Avenue, 20th Avenue from 6th Street to 8th Street as well as 8th Street from Western Avenue to Main Avenue.

Berreth says there was little opposition to the proposal.

"There was minimal opposition to this, mainly residents who don't want to lose parking in front of their houses. We were able to compromise in the City Council meeting. Another stretch proposed was along the 8th Street, not only to Main, but all the way to Western and a lot the people opposed to it lived along that Main to Western stretch and we felt that wasn't a high priority to us. And if it would have some troubles, we understood where the residents were coming from and so they can keep their parking," Berreth said.





A few days after I finished this story, the city put up no parking signs in the areas that now banned parking. It seemed like they put them up overnight because I witnessed a police officer issuing tickets to those with cars parked in front of Hansen Hall just a few days later.

During this story I learned patience when it came to getting the best possible shots and information. The only thing I would have wanted to change for this story is to get reactions from students, but I'm glad I was able to fit all of the information on the background of the ban into this story.