Prospective 8th graders gain insight on school through Open House

Devin Henk, Reporter

The 8th Grade open house event held for incoming freshmen on Jan. 12 was a success with some need for improvement that could be changed in the following years.  

“I think that the open house was good,” math teacher Dario Gudino-Garcia said. “I would have liked to see even more students naturally, but I think this is something that’s getting better every year and we can continue to improve on attendance.” 

This event featured over 15 stations that included academies, classes, clubs and more. The Design and Construction, Education, Urban Agriculture and Transportation, Distribution and Logistics (TDL) academies were stationed in the commons to reach the guests when they first entered. The academies are meant to give students real-world career experiences while still in high school. JRTOC, newspaper, yearbook, robotics, esports, DECA, FBLA, soccer, football, and tennis all had stations, many were in the gym

This event gives students the chance to get comfortable and remove any fears they might have when transitioning from middle school to a high-school learning environment. 

“The open house gives incoming students the opportunity to get a feel of what the schools like and get to know some of their teachers,” Gudino-Garcia said. “It helps ease some of the anxiety that incoming freshman are going to have naturally coming into high school and on top of that it gives them a chance to see what things they can get involved in.” 

Improving attendance at events by using more recruiting strategies to make families aware that it’s happening may be beneficial in the future. But some families simply cannot attend these events due to time constraints.  

“I think in order to get better attendance at a BHS open house, there needs to be more authentic promotion like first developing a culture that takes care of displaying the purpose on its own, instead of the less engaging emphasis that we put into these events at our school, like a simple announcement that sounds unfaithful towards the students who might be interested.” senior student ambassador Bryley Carabantes said. 

There are also other events going on that are listed on the BHS sites calendar.