About BHSAbout BHS

Educational Community

Bridgeport High School is located in the small, growing town of Bridgeport, West Virginia, which has almost 7,600 residents. The community is upper middle class socioeconomic status, with a high number of educated parents working in various professional fields.

Bridgeport High School students come from a three-feeder school area. Johnson Elementary School and Bridgeport Middle School are located adjacent to B.H.S. on a unified campus facing Johnson Avenue, while the third feeder school, Simpson Elementary, is located on Worthington Drive.

Students enrolled in these four schools live in Bridgeport, Anmoore, and surrounding unincorporated areas, such as Quiet Dell, Johnstown, Maple Lake, Corbin Branch, Oral Lake, Brushy Fork, and Romines Mills.

Building Design

The present two-story building sets on a 22.0 acre level site that fronts Johnson Avenue and appears to still be in good condition. The building was constructed in 1963, and since that time has undergone 2 major additions in order to accommodate the increasing enrollment. The first addition was completed in 1992, while the second addition, which contains two state-of-the-art computer labs, was completed in 1997, giving the building a total area of approximately 98,152 square feet.

Departmental clusters have been achieved in the design of the building, and the general classroom area appears to be above average and appropriate for instruction. The facility could continue to serve Harrison County School and the Bridgeport community as a high school for many years into the future.

Enrollment Statistics

Bridgeport High School is home to 762 students ranging from grades 9 through 12. In addition, Bridgeport High School has the highest attendance rate of all five county high schools, at 94.6%. The dropout rate is also low, at a reported 2.5%. Seventeen percent of the students are enrolled in free or reduced lunch programs.

Standardized Testing Information

Of the five area high schools, Bridgeport High School students consistently score well above the county, state, and national mean scores for total battery on the Stanford Achievement Test, 9th edition. The total basic skills percentile scores for ninth, tenth, and eleventh grade students ranked a minimum of 9 percentile points to 14 percentile points above the county and state averages.

Many of Bridgeport High School’s students are college-bound, therefore many students will take at least one college entrance exam during their junior and senior years. In the 1999-2000 school term, 82.0% of the 189 seniors had taken the ACT, achieving an average composite score of 21.1. Over 25% take the PSAT, and approximately 27.9% of the students take the SAT. In addition, an increasing number of students are taking advanced placement test.

Staffing Information And Statistics

Mark DeFazio is the principal of Bridgeport High School. He is assisted by Mary Frances Smith and Matt DeMotto. The school is home to 58 teachers. The average length of experience for the administration and faculty is 18 years. Over 73% of the professional staff have earned a Master’s Degree or above. Among the professional staff, 4.8% have earned a Bachelor’s Degree, 22.2% have earned a Bachelor’s Degree + 15hrs, 4.8% have a Master’s Degree, 11.1% have a Master’s Degree + 15hrs, 27.0% have a Master’s Degree + 30hrs, 28.6% have a Master’s Degree + 45hrs, and 1.6% have a Doctorate.

Staff Involvement

The staff has other responsibilities beyond the four walls of the classroom. In addition to having an active Faculty Senate, staff members set up Staff Development sessions for the school, serve on the Technology Committee, perform Advisor-Advisee tasks with their homeroom, and provide journalism functions, such as publishing a school newsletter and a school web site. Many teachers also serve on other committees, such as the School Improvement Committee and the Healthy Schools Committee. Every teacher serves on at least one school focus team, which deals with issues such as school rules and regulations and curriculum issues/concerns. In addition, teachers host many clubs and activities, sponsor trips to other countries, chaperone and set up field trips, and prove to be very active in supporting co-curricular activities involving academics, athletics, and community service.

Curriculum and Articulation

In addition to an excellent staff, Bridgeport High School is dedicated to providing its students with the best curriculum available to meet their needs. It believes that the responsibilities of the school to the community are to educate the students socially, emotionally, physically, and academically. In order to achieve this, the school offers a curriculum merging technology with the traditional academic discipline. Bridgeport High School has modified two types of block-scheduling in order to better meet the needs of the students. In addition to the standard 4 x 4 block schedule, some a.m. classes operate on an alternate-day block. This enables more students to take fine arts and other course electives.

Extracurricular activities such as sports, responsible students programs, thuses, clubs, and assemblies are offered to broaden the student’s educational experiences. Enrollment by subject area includes 98.4% English Language Arts, 37.2% Foreign Language, 80.2% Mathematics, 78.9% Science, and 83.2% Social Studies.

Bridgeport works in conjunction with other county schools to enable our students to attend the United Technical Center for vocational-technical classes and the Robert C. Byrd Magnet Center to enroll in advanced education classes.

Fairmont State College and Salem-Teikyo University both have branches in Clarksburg, which is 5 miles away. Many of our students enroll in one of these colleges to take one or more classes while they are still in high school.

Other Resources and Services

In addition to the basic core curriculum and electives offered, other services/opportunities are available for students at Bridgeport High School.

The Harrison county Board of Education Resource Center is housed at Bridgeport High school. Information and referral are available through the Center for parents of all students. The Center also provides training programs for parents and teachers on specific topics related to child development. These classes are offered free of charge to parents

Classes and supporting personnel are available for students with specific learning disabilities, mild behavioral, or emotional disabilities and the mildly mentally impaired. The school also has interpreters and support persons available for the visually, auditory, or physically impaired student.

In keeping with Senate Bill 300 and the School-To-Work initiative, Bridgeport High School has an on-site coordinator who addresses AA’s(Advisor-Advisee homerooms) in regard to course requirements needed to complete their major course of study. Students are provided opportunities to ask questions and make potential contacts for their thirty hours work-based experience required for graduation.

Mission and Philosophy

The mission of Bridgeport High School is to “prepare students for post-secondary endeavors by providing superior learning experiences in their academic, fine and applied arts, personal and community socialization and co-curricular activities”. 5

“The basic philosophy of Bridgeport High School is that all students will be given educational opportunities at their own rate that will allow them to reach their full potential in becoming successful, functioning members of society……We believe that our students should be able to relate to each other with mutual respect and consideration even with a variety of economic and family backgrounds……..It is our belief that the basic requirement needed to survive in a technological society is education. Our school has committed itself to helping individuals succeed by offering an excellent staff, a variety of courses, a pleasant atmosphere, and a moral foundation on which to build.”

In keeping with the school’s philosophy, the community has supported the educational program by providing partnerships with local businesses. Among Bridgeport High School’s Partners in Education are WDTV, Pratt Whitney, UCAR, Lang Brothers, and the Art Center.

by Michelle Todd-Brown

Exemplary School

The state won't release the list until Nov. 12, but local school officials say Bridgeport High and Bridgeport Middle are exemplary schools for the 2008-2009 school year.

High school principal Mark DeFazio and middle school principal Carole Crowford confirmed the selection.

This is the eighth year in a row for BHS, and the third in a row for the middle school -- fifth time on the list overall for BMS. Both principals say it's quite an accomplishment.

"I received a letter from the state informing us that we received the award again this year," DeFazio said. "We're the only high school that has won the award for all eight years that it has been awarded. We've been the only high school in the state that has met Exemplary School status eight-straight years. No other high school has that distinct honor of making it every year since the existance of the Exemplary School," he said.

In order to receive an exemplary acknowledgment from the state, schools must meet a high level of student proficiency in core subjects; meet a student attendance rate of at or above 94 percent; meet a student graduation rate of at or above 85 percent; meet a college or post-secondary attendance rate of 55 percent; and meet a 5 percent standard of students who successfully complete Advanced Placement, dual credit and honors classes as defined by state Policy 2510.

Achieving the accomplishment for the past eight years is not something the administration at BHS pushes their staff and students to accomplish. DeFazio said it is an award they earn all on their own time.

"It's an everyday thing," DeFazio said. "You're attendance is tied into it, your test scores are tied into it, the number of kids who have an intent to go onto college or post-secondary education is tied into it, and you have to have 5 percent of your students complete advanced placement, duel credit or honor classes."

It's not something we go out each year and say we want to be an exemplary school," DeFazio sai. "It's pretty much understood that these are the things as a student they need to do in order to prepare themselves for the next step of their lives, which then leads to the award."

DeFazio said BHS is not perfect in anyway shape or form just because they've achieved exemplary status for the past eight years. he said everyon involved has a hand in maintaining that status year in and year out.

"I've said this a number of times -- our kids are very competitive when it comes to academics," DeFazio said. "Because score are high, our kids take AP and honor classes, and because of background and the community, many of them go on to post-secondary schools."

DeFazio said it's also a cultural thing with great parents, students, community and faculty.

"As a group we are all doing the right thing," DeFazio said. "We're doing the correct things right now, but I see some of those things swinging the other way. We're hoping to try to maintain the status we have now or improve it, and it's not an easy task for any of us. Around the state and country things are changing drastically and we're hoping we can maintain status quo."

Crawford said is is very similar at Bridgeport Middle School when it comes to making the list.

"I think we make the list because our teachers, students, and parents are committed to the whole package," Crawford said. "They've committed to academic performance, attendance, etc. The teachers set a high standard for the students, but we also have the parents who are setting the same high standard."

Crawford said at BMS, exemplary school recognition is not set as a goal, but goals are set to achieve everything required to be named an exemplary school.

"We set the goal for academic achievement and excellence," Crawford said. From that, this results. It's a nice recognition -- the icing on the cake for the entire community.

"Our goal here is to work with every child and make sure every child, whether they be novice or distinguished, grows and achieves to their highes potential," Crawford said. "Our staff is on top of it -- we have a great staff."

by Lynn Vance