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Photograph by Chad Pilster
Branham's Back!
After eight dormant years, Branham High School reopens its doors
By Genevieve Roja
It's a hazy Friday afternoon when Principal Iris Berke announces she has 13 days until Branham High School officially opens its doors after an eight-year closure. Berke, dressed in white linen pants, blazer and a black blouse, looks like she's running a well-oiled machine. In a nanosecond, Berke is needed by everyone, including assistant principal Greg O'Meara, secretary Barbara Nishiguchi and others.
"You'll have to excuse me," she says in her makeshift office, which at around 80 degrees is broiling hot. "There's so much to do."
Berke isn't kidding. On this particular day, Branham--the newest addition to the Campbell Union High School District--is in a state of disarray. The permanent administrative office's floors are being waxed, some of the classrooms and labs are jam-packed with boxes of textbooks and the sound of drills and other power tools echoes down the empty hallways.
What students will see today is five classroom wings with new flooring, lights, paint and furniture. The pool and media center have been modernized, and each classroom will have at least one computer wired for Internet access. The school has drafted an architectural plan with several phases that, it is estimated, will take place over four years. Provided a bond measure is approved, Branham is in store for more upgrades.
"I'm very excited," says incoming CUHSD superintendent Rhonda Farber. "It's a tremendous opportunity for our students, parents and the community. We're thrilled."
Branham High and Blackford High (now an Alternative Education school) both closed indefinitely in June 1991, after a demographic study showed declining enrollment. Branham area students were forced to complete their secondary education at other schools, including Branham's rival, Leigh High School. But because several high schools within CUHSD are now reaching their maximum enrollment--Leigh topped at 1,990, Westmont at 1,644, Del Mar at 1,588 and Prospect at 1,564 last year--Branham's reopening became important to the district's vitality.
Much like Rome, Branham was not built or planned in a day. Originally open in 1967, Branham began to see its enrollment figures drop in the mid-'80s. For a couple of years following the school's closing, rumors abounded that Branham would re-open. First, surveys were done to chart demographics and population trends. Community meetings followed and a Re-Open Schools Committee was formed. From winter of '97 to spring of '98, a committee called the Potential High School, made up of parents, students and other members of the community, worked to draft a document that contained their vision of an ideal high school. They visited schools in and out of the district--modern schools, traditional schools--to gather information and perhaps incorporate the same elements into a single school.
"It was a visionary plan," says Berke, who was hired by the district last July to develop the school. "It was a beautiful idea."
Thanks to that extensive research, Branham will first cater exclusively to freshmen and sophomores. A class will be added yearly; the first senior class will graduate in 2002.
In order to balance enrollment in district schools, the school board redrew the district into two "free zones" last December. Free Zone No. 1 is Leigh High's attendance area, which is bordered by Camden Avenue, Highway 85, Highway 880/17 and Union Avenue. Students within that zone have the option to transfer to Branham. In Free Zone No. 2, Branham High's attendance area, students have the option to transfer to Leigh. That area is bordered by Blossom Hill Road, Meridian Avenue, the east side of Camden Avenue, and Hicks Road west to Santa Rosa Drive.
To spread the news about Branham's re-opening, the administration sent information to its strongest feeder schools, including Dartmouth and Ada Price. According to Berke, roughly 600 of the students who will be attending Branham hail from Union, Oster and Leitz middle schools. Bob Whitfield, father of son Marcus and stepson Chris Johnson, both 13, chose Branham over other established high schools.
"All I was thinking was there wouldn't be so much pressure without juniors and seniors," says Whitfield, who was watching his sons' frosh/soph football team practice one Friday afternoon. "It [high school] is traumatic already."
He says many of the boys' friends were going to Branham, which became one of the primary reasons for their attendance.
"The other selling point is that they're going to help mold the high school," Whitfield says. "But we're putting a lot of faith in the principal."
Incoming freshman Heather Calhoun, 15, is hoping that she won't arrive on campus and discover that they've forgotten anything in the wake of all the renovations. She also feels a small burden of responsibility, being among the first to establish the school's reputation.
"I think it's going to be a normal school," Calhoun says. "But it's going to be hard to get Branham up."
Tradition is important to Calhoun, yet she recognizes that Branham will have to develop its own rituals and traditions.
"What's graduation going to be like?" she says. "It's also one thing to start school where you have one new teacher, but here we're going to have all new teachers."
Calhoun's friend Ashley Heaps, 14, will also be a freshman. She's excited, she says, but "in a kind of weird way."
"At least we don't have to get beat up by seniors," Heaps says.
"Yeah--no hazing," Calhoun chimes in.
Julie Schmidt, a Del Mar High alumna and parent of incoming freshman Courtney Schmidt, has spent her summer photocopying fundraising envelopes in the cramped quarters of the administrative office. She admits she has concerns about the school, but working with Berke this summer has helped alleviate some of them.
"We've been very excited all the way through," Schmidt says. "She [Courtney] likes the idea of starting fresh in a very small school and getting to help and have active participation in the planning of the school. I really think it's going to be a good experience for her. The programs seem to be in place, the staff is very supportive, and the coaches are fabulous."
"Starting over" is among the top reasons why incoming students and new administration have come to Branham.
"The opportunity to start a school from scratch is just a once-in-a-lifetime chance," says Berke, who had served the last two years as director of educational services in the Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District and as principal of Foothill High School in Pleasanton. "To be able to select the staff, the energy behind getting started, is fantastic."
Paper Chase: Freshman Chas Dickemore hands in his papers on registration day at Branham High.
Photograph by Chad Pilster
The response from Branham alumni has been tremendous as well. Many are offering their personal relics: old athletic uniforms, plaques and trophies--many of which disappeared once the school closed.
"Branham is a very beloved school," Berke says. "I've received tons of emails from people who want to get involved."
Dick Robbins, Branham's principal from 1980 to 1984, has been helping the school's music teacher buy instruments and music. Robbins is the interim principal at Westmont High School until Sam Houston fully recovers from his stroke.
"It's been wonderful, planning things," says Robbins, who stood with former Branham principals Burl Fields, Jack Wagnon and Berke at the dedication ceremony last Thursday. "It's a terrific situation."
All summer long, dozens of parents and volunteers have offered their services to get the school up and running. One of them is Sandy Trouard, who has been stamping and organizing all of the textbooks for a month and a half.
"After working here, I have no reservations," Trouard says about sending her daughter Kimberly to Branham. "I've met the teachers, the vice principal, the principal's secretary, and I love them all. They're all top-drawer to me, and I've gotten to know them. I feel we're really going to have a place here."
Kimberly Trouard, 15, looks forward to her first day at Branham. Trouard, an inter-district transfer from Leigh, has already made the volleyball team and is participating in the school's leadership program.
"I transferred from Leigh because I wasn't very sociable over there," Trouard says. "I had my little clique, but I wanted to get out and meet new people, be involved as much as I could and start lots of new clubs."
Two components unique to Branham will be an integrated curriculum and a "block schedule" fashioned after Leigh's, which adopted the schedule last year. A block schedule consists of six 90-minute classes (plus lunch) or "blocks" on an "A" or "B" day. Those who wish to receive additional help in the morning or afternoon can add a half-hour tutorial" to their schedules.
An integrated curriculum means teachers will structure their classes so that school subjects are interrelated. For example, the drama teacher might put on a production of Medea, while the history teacher talks about Greek civics or the math teacher discusses Greek contributions to mathematics.
"What we're trying to do is make connections between subjects and not have these isolated pockets of knowledge," says Dorothy Abreu-Coito, dean of students. "There's a lot of educational research that backs that up. We wanted to take these subjects and make them more meaningful for students."
Because Branham has an emphasis on science and engineering and visual and performing arts, students will also be required to take science and elective classes in art, music, drama, leadership, publications, technology and Spanish.
"The focus is really on [cultivating] successful students--that's the main goal of the school," Berke says. "We want to make every student feel connected, use the resources available at Branham, and give them the opportunity to take charge of their own learning."
Naturally, there are some minor glitches that students will face this fall. Valley Christian School, which has students from kindergarten through 12th grade, leased the Branham site in 1991. Branham students will have to share the campus with Valley Christian until construction at their VCS Skyway campus is completed. In the meantime, students will share parts of the campus, including classrooms. Administrators from both schools have also staggered each school's academic schedules and designated alternate practice and game times on the athletic fields.
Change presents nothing but a cherished opportunity for Barbara Nishiguchi, who worked at Branham from 1987 to 1990 and is now Berke's secretary.
"It was so sad to close the school," Nishiguchi says. "There were a lot of hurt feelings, lost time. When the district was talking about reopening the school, my first thought was 'I want to be there.' I wanted to be a part of its rebirth, its new beginning. For me, Branham was my first school--kinda like your first love."
She remembers the first time Iris Berke welcomed her back to campus and walked her down Branham's hallways.
"It was just eerie, but it was a nice feeling," Nishiguchi says. "I said, 'I'm coming home,' with tears in my eyes."
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Campbell, California
