Brookline High School is a four-year public high school in the town of Brookline, Massachusetts. It is a part of Public Schools of Brookline.
Brookline High School has received the Gold Medal for Best High Schools from U.S. News & World Report.[4] In addition, Boston Magazine has frequently ranked BHS as one of the best high schools in Massachusetts for academic performance; in 2008, it was ranked top in the state.[5][6]
As of the 2011–12 school year, 1,804 students were enrolled in the high school, served by 150 teachers (on an FTE basis), the student to teacher ratio was approximately 11.6 to 1,[7] and students represented 76 nations and spoke 31 different languages.
All students at Brookline High School must complete three credits' worth of electives, with the intent of fostering student creativity. A newly opened film program, facilitated through Brookline Access Television (BATV), enables students to produce their own films with state-of-the-art technology.
The school was founded in Spring, 1843 on the lower floor of the Town Hall on Walnut Street with one teacher. The school met here until 1856. The second location was a small, new, two-story building on School Street that opened on November 3, 1856 next to the Pierce School. The third and present location was purchased, and a new three-story building opened in Fall, 1895. The Manual Arts building was built at a cost of $100,000 on Tappan Street, and opened in September, 1903. The ninth grade moved from the School of Practical Arts in the elementary schools to the high school in September 1921. An addition to the main building was finished at that time to increase the capacity to 1500 students. The main building was expanded and remodeled in 1965 with a budget of $1.5 million.[8]
The school has Symbolic Panels made by the sculptor John A. Wilson.[9] In May 2018, Brookline voters supported a debt exclusion override to fund the expansion and renovation of Brookline High School. This building project will include the construction of a new building at the 111 Cypress Street site, a new Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) building to replace the building at the corner of Tappan and Greenough Streets, renovations to the 3rd floor of the main building and the Tappan gymnasium, as well as improvements to Cypress Field.[10]