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.