Your Hometown Homeroom: Introducing Our Barnegat High School Project

Over the last two weeks we have made several trips to the Barnegat High School. We have met the students, talked with teachers and watched snippets of the daily life of this town's newest school.

Today the Barnegat Patch is taking its readers back to school. Barnegat's high school is so new, many of you may not have attended this one. 

The Barnegat High School

In response to the new trend seen in the township's growing population, Barnegat High School opened its doors in 2004 to freshmen only.

Eight years later, the school services approximately 1050 students, with roughly 80 teachers and 20 other members of the staff. It offers instruction at all levels — from special education and basic level study to AP and honors classes, and electives which include art, music and public speaking. More than 20 after school clubs and activities include sports, such as baseball and softball, music, arts and community organizations such as the Optimist Club.

We knocked on the doors of the Barnegat High School, and the principal of BHS Dr. Joseph Saxton, along with teachers and students, opened the doors wide. Most subjects of our interviews, students and teachers alike, really opened up to us about the rewards and the challenges they have been facing each day.

Most Barnegat residents — including the students' parents — can't listen in on the students' conversations as they wait for the first bell. They can't sit in on two different English classes and compare their experience. They can neither vote in the sophomore students elections nor can they get a whiff of "Chicken Wednesday" excitement at the cafeteria.

But we hope that through our stories, they will be able to.

The pride

As a new school, BHS had to meet its primary responsibility: providing quality academic instruction, while meeting diverse needs of its students.

But the school had another important mission: to build its own identity.

"From the beginning, we wanted to create a place where we could challenge the kids academically," said Dr. Saxton, the Barnegat High School principal, who had been with the school since the beginning, after working as a teacher, and then a vice principal at the Lacey High School. "But we also wanted it to be a place they could call home and one they could be proud of."

Many Barnegat High School students expressed pride in their school.

"Southern's so big, no one even cares," said Serena Badrow, 18, senior class president. "You get lost in the crowd. Here, we take care of our own."

The lessons

It starts in kindergarten. When a child comes home, her parents, waiting at the door want to know, "What did you learn today?"

By the time students reach high school level, they aren't asked this question nearly as often, it seems.

But we did it.

We asked Barnegat High School students what they are learning here each day.

Some students rolled their eyes and sighed at the question. Some shrugged it away.

"It's a waste of my time," said Evan McDermott, 16, about the material he was learning in his English class. "I'm never going to use any of this in real life."

McDermott, who said he wants to enter a medical field through the Army and become a combatant medic, said the same was true of many of his other classes as well, including math, though possibly not science.

But most students said they had found many learning opportunities both inside and outside their classrooms.

"Evolution was pretty cool," said Devon Rodriguez, 17.

"I like the math," said Maddie Jackstadt, 17, of her honors physics class.

"I've been learning to do my work and pay attention, so I am prepared for when I want to go to college," said Rodriguez' classmate, James Cox, 15.

"I think your high school experience comes down to what you make of it," said Cristino Pacquing, 17, a senior. "The way I took high school is seriously. I packed my schedule with lots of challenging courses."

"I've decided to take the easy way out and not take the hardest classes, but I am a good student," said Mariah Pilchman, 17, who is involved in many extracurricular activities, including chorus and the drama club.

"Performing and singing onstage helped me become more confident," Pilchman said. "Even in class, it helped me speak up more."

"I think if I had to describe it, it's a place where it's easy to get a vast amount of knowledge," said Grant Bilker, 18, describing his English class. As for school in general, one of the biggest things he's been learning here was "how to live morally," Bilker said.

For Amanda Glowacki, 18, interactions with people have been some of the most educational of experiences.

"I got to meet a lot of influential teachers," said Glowacki, adding that they have inspired her to a goal of becoming a teacher and a basketball coach one day. "I've learned from seeing the different people here. I've learned not to judge people for what they look like, that no matter how different people may seem, they really are just like you."