Ballston Spa High School
Ballston Spa High School
Ballston Spa High School (often referred to as simply BSHS ) is a public high school located in Ballston Spa, New York. It is part of the Ballston Spa Central School District, which covers the towns of Ballston, Milton, and Malta in Saratoga County. The mascot is the Scottie dog, dedicated to long time football coach Coach Scott, a legend in Ballston Spa athletics. The school colors are Purple and Gold but the complementary (alternative) color of black is often used.
The high school was shifted to a new, state of the art building in 1998; it remains on the same campus as the original building, which now functions as a middle school. One of the more innovative features of the building is a generator that helps to ease the school's electricity demands. Ballston Spa is considered an above average school, receiving high marks on standardized tests. Class sizes range from 300 to 400, resulting in a total student population of around 1,400.
Courses
Ballston Spa offers a wide range of varied and well-taught courses in many fields. As a student there, one can take advanced courses in math, science or technology, focus more on the arts, or even pursue an interest in food preparation.
Advisory Periods
Beginning in the 2007-2008 school year, each department was given an "advisory room" and each teacher advisory hours. Similar to a professor's office hours at college, these are provided so that students can seek help during their study halls.
Advancement
Beginning in the middle school, students have the opportunity to accelerate one year in math and/or science. This program continues into the high school, where all science classes have Core, Regents, and Honors levels to cater to each student's individual academic needs. Although other departments have yet to divide classes as thoroughly, many classes are also offered as Advanced Placement courses to students who wish to challenge themselves and earn college credit. In addition to AP courses, Ballston Spa offers special University in the High School classes, in which students are presented with college level material and may gain credit from local colleges. Although enrollment into the college is not required to take a UHS class, it is required to gain college credit for the class. Students are charged a reduced fee to enroll in the college course. Ballston Spa also offers many BOCES courses through the VoTech program.
AP courses
Ballston Spa currently offers the following classes for AP credit:
- AP English Literature (A 10th grade AP Prep course is offered as well)
- AP English Language
- AP Studio Art
- AP Calculus AB
- AP Calculus BC
- AP Biology
- AP Chemistry
- AP Physics B
- AP World History (Two year course)
- AP US History
Ballston Spa is also very open-minded in regards to independent studies, and students have, in the past, prepared for exams such as AP Government and Physics C exams.
UHS Courses
UHS courses are offered in the business, foreign language, mathematics, science, social studies, and technology departments, through partnerships with SCCC, SUNY Albany, Syracuse University, and RIT/HVCC. Both upper levels of language (French/Spanish IV and V) are offered as UHS, as are many business classes and all technology classes relating to Project Lead the Way.
VoTech
Students may, in their junior or senior year, choose from a wide variety of VoTech courses through the BOCES program. To earn a five-unit sequence in the BOCES program, students must take an additional 1/2 credit in a career-oriented course. Programs are offered in the areas of
- Computer Technology
- Engineering and Technology
- Health Services
- Human and Public Services
- Natural and Horticulture Science
Requirements
Ballston Spa has several unique course requirements. First, every student is required to take a full year course in the business department their freshman year entitled Freshman Seminar. Previous to the 2005-2006 school year, this one credit requirement was met by two one semester courses, one taken freshman year and one sophomore year, entitled Career Pathways and Career Clusters, respectively. Recently, this requirement has been called into question, as parents have complained that it limits a student's ability to take electives that interest them.
As Ballston Spa lies under the jurisdiction of the New York State Board of Regents, all students are required to take 4 credits of English, the first three being basically prep courses for the English Regents that students take at the end of their junior year. For the fourth English credit, students create, in a sense, their own English curriculum - there are currently a dozen one semester classes open to seniors, covering everything from Mysteries and Best Sellers to Shakespeare and Public Speaking. Students are required to pick two, but may take more if motivated to do so. Also available to seniors is the second AP English course.
During the 2007 summer session, Ballston Spa made several one semester required courses available during the summer for motivated students. Currently offered are Health and Participation in Government.
Electives
Ballston Spa students are offered many elective courses, in many areas. Students can take electives in the sciences, social sciences, language arts, fine arts, industrial arts, and even the athletic department. Many of the electives are offered through the UHS program. An especially notable elective in the science department is Science Research, a three year course where students learn how to read and write for scientific journals before conducting their own two-year research project. With electives ranging from performance groups to food preparation (ending in June 2009), motivated Ballston Spa students can easily gain a well-rounded educational experience.
Schedule
Ballston Spa operates on a rotating block schedule, where eight scheduling blocks (classes) are distributed over four six-period days. Classes are divided between morning and afternoon classes, which rotate separately through the first three and last three periods, with fourth period having an extra half hour built in for lunches. Students are placed in one of three lunches, depending on which class is scheduled during that period. Although students report issues with schedule memorization, the schedule offers many benefits: days are more varied than in a simple A Day/B Day schedule, and not tying it directly to weekdays allows for more flexibility.
Previous to the 2007-2008 school year, Ballston Spa had been running on a 10-block schedule, which rotated over 5 days instead of 4. The switch caused a great deal of controversy, as motivated students felt cheated out of two classes, and most of the planning and implementation was completed behind closed doors. The BOE also made the decision before receiving the opinions of parents and the community. This caused some controversy as parents and students felt that the additional classes were advantageous in the highly competitive college application process. Although major teacher opposition to the schedule came from humanities teachers, whose students would most likely be the ones forced to drop classes, academic teachers mostly supported the 8-block schedule's increased instructional time with the greatest support coming from the sciences, allowing it to pass the teachers' vote. Additional effects of the new schedule include a sharp decrease in study halls and the total elimination of study halls in the cafeteria, a former classroom space saver. This drastic reduction in study halls has effectively rendered the new advisory rooms pointless. The stated reason for the change was lack of space in the now 10-year old facility, which is still widely considered state-of-the-art. The lack of space was due to a failed concept in the design of the building. The original intent was to have the building designed to be structurally able to support a third floor, should the need arise. During construction, plans were changed due possibly to an additional cost for the support structure.
The 10-block schedule had had a long tenure at Ballston Spa, being introduced decades before the new high school had been built. There had been major shortages of teachers and classrooms at the old facilities, and one of the purposes of the 10-block schedule was to better distribute these resources. Certain classes tried to gain back the time they had lost due to the switch as time went on; Global History, Math 3R, and Level II language all added one period per week, and sciences added two periods per week for lab. These extra periods began to cause scheduling conflicts for students and teachers alike, becoming one of the reasons the 10-block schedule was phased out. Other causes of the scheduling conflicts included lack of classroom space to effectively house the growing student population at BSHS.
Unfortunately, the new 8-block schedule has severely decreased the number of students able to enroll in humanities electives and cuts in both offerings and staff are currently being undertaken.
Athletics
Ballston Spa has a large and well funded Athletic program. It recently moved, due to a growing population, from the Foothills Council to the Suburban Council. Since then, several of Ballston Spa's teams have gone to championships, including the Swim, Track, and Football T
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