Superintendent’s Message

Step-up Day

Recently, our 8th graders from Honea Path and Belton Middle Schools gathered at BHP to have their first introduction to life as a high schooler. They were able to experience much of the offerings at BHP and even enjoyed fine dining in the school cafeteria. Some of us can remember back to our before high school days, and can possibly remember some trepidation of what to expect. Were we supposed to decide on a career or college as soon as we enrolled? Were the classes going to be more difficult and would there be more work? Or, will my friends from middle school remain my friends in high school?

 I recently shared with some of these parents of rising 9th graders a few resources our students have that we didn’t have. First, I would wager that none of us carried a phone to school. We weren’t aware we were missing anything and we were still able to make contact with parents, etc. Second, the immediate access to information puts our students so far ahead of the curve. Think about how much time we had to spend simply gathering information, let alone using it. Finally, the exposure our students have to world events is not only instantaneous but also mind-boggling. Most of the time, when we heard current events they were no longer current and many decisions had been made since. Our students are viewing the world in present time and having to form an opinion as it happens. All of these can be considered good and/or bad resources. Regardless, our students have them readily available and we didn’t.

Still, there are three maybe old-fashioned tools that we can give our students to ensure they will have a productive high school career - make good grades, have good attendance and stay involved as parents. When we see these traits in middle school, we can be pretty confident those students are prepared and destined for success in high school. We will take measure four years later, but the 8th-grade students I met at Step-Up Day gave me reason to believe we will witness great things over the next few years.

Dr. Richard Rosenberger

Mission & Vision