Bridgeport Public Schools

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Bridgeport Public Schools is a school district headquartered in Bridgeport, Connecticut, United States.

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Bridgeport High School, about 1910 (the school, in a different building, is now Central High School) PostcardHighSchoolBridgeportCT1910.jpg
Bridgeport High School, about 1910 (the school, in a different building, is now Central High School)

The city's public school system has 30 elementary schools, three comprehensive high schools, two alternative programs and an interdistrict vocational aquaculture school. The system has about 23,000 students, making the Bridgeport Public Schools the second largest school system in Connecticut. The school system employs a professional staff of more than 1,700.

The city has started a large school renovation and construction program, with plans for new schools and modernization of existing buildings.

The current superintendent is Alyshia Perrin.

Public high schools

Bridgeport Regional Vocational Aquaculture School in 2010. Bridgeport Regional Vocational Aquaculture School.jpg
Bridgeport Regional Vocational Aquaculture School in 2010.

Bassick Junior High School opened in 1929 with 1,034 students in grades seven through nine and was soon thereafter converted to a senior high school. A new addition was built in 1968 at a cost of $3.5 million.

Original facility

The original school was designed by C. Wellington Walker, and was located at 1734 Central Avenue.[5] Featuring Georgian style architecture and Greek columns, it was in service for 93 years.[6]

Current facility

Built at a cost of $107 million the new building was completed in 2018 and is a four-story 207,000 square feet (19,200 m2) square foot structure.[7] It was built on a former General Electric factory site which underwent considerable environmental remediation.[8] The building has many security features, including bulletproof glass and 130 security cameras.[9]

Elementary schools

In later years, the Franklin Stove was replaced with a pot-bellied stove. The students sat on planked benches. These benches were drawn closer to the stove on cold, winter days. It was customary at that time to have two-door entrances - one for the boys and one for the girls. The second public Black Rock School was built circa 1865 at the intersection of Brewster Street and Grovers Avenue. It was a two-story brown frame building with a belfry. Originally, all eight grades were taught there, four grades on each floor. An annual event was all grades posing for their school pictures. The present Black Rock School site was built in 1905. In 1911, a wing was added to accommodate the growing number of students.

For many years, it was customary for elementary schools to have a fife and drum corps. Black Rock School was the first school in Bridgeport to have a band consisting of numerous brass and percussion instruments. After a fire damaged the school, it was renovated and a rededication program was held on May 13, 1977. Subsequently, Black Rock School was renovated again, which brought the school up to present-day standards and high technology usage for the school population. The rededication program was held on October 24, 1993.

In 2015, a new wing was completed, including eight new state-of-the-art classrooms for kindergarten and first grade. There are computers in every classroom and WiFi throughout the building. Classrooms are equipped with Promethean board technology and each student has a district-provided device to use in school and at home. Black Rock School is now a Pre-K-8 elementary school that is warm and inviting with a hum of learning throughout the building.

District Reference Group

Another picture of Bridgeport High School, about 1905 PostcardBridgeportCTHiSchool1901to1907.jpg
Another picture of Bridgeport High School, about 1905

Bridgeport is one of the seven public school systems in District Reference Group I, a classification made by the state Department of Education for the purpose of comparison with the achievement levels of similar schools and districts. District reference groups are defined as "districts whose students' families are similar in education, income, occupation and need, and that have roughly similar enrollment". [1] The other six school districts in the group are Hartford, New Britain, New Haven, New London, Waterbury and Windham. [2]

See also

Notes

  1. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 23, 2015. Retrieved March 6, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) state "Strategic School Profile 2005-2006" for Wilton High School, accessed March 25, 2007
  2. "WCGMF-Discovery | Communities: By DRG". Archived from the original on February 24, 2007. Retrieved March 6, 2007. Web page titled "Find a Community: By Educational Reference Group (DRG)" at the "Discovery 2007 / An initiative of the William Caspar Graustein Fund" Web site, accessed March 25, 2007

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