Talk:Battlefield High School

April 2006

Uh... not too sure how the importance thing is done... but I put this up here because I was reading one of the wikipedia projects was to include all the information from other encyclopedia's. Near this was an article saying that facebook.com submitted like 20,000 High Schools to Wikipedia that still needed to be documented. I was simply documenting one of them.

Important? *shrug* I was just trying to help I guess. --Nate D 07:28, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

I moved the schedule section here, doesn't seem of interest to anyone but the students at the school. —Preceding unsigned comment added by RJFJR (talk • contribs) 11:52, April 11, 2006

Schedule

Battlefield High School operates on an alternating block schedule, rotating between Purple and Black days. (These are the two primary school colors of the Bobcats.)

Purple Days include "even" periods. You can remember this because "purple" has an even number of letters. (Six.) Purple Days include classes during periods 1, 2, 4, and 6.

Black Days include "odd" periods. You can remember this because "black" has an odd number of letters. (Five.) Black Days include classes during periods 1, 3, 5, and 7.

Key times are announced by electronic signal bell broadcast over the public address system. The bell schedule follows below for the 2006-2007 school year. This is changed from the 2005-2006 school year.

7:13 - Warning Bell 7:20 - First Period begins 8:20 - First Period ends 8:26 - Second / Third Period begins 9:56 - Second / Third Period ends 10:02 - Fourth / Fifth period begins 12:12 - Fourth / Fifth period ends 12:18 - Sixth / Seventh period begins 1:50 - Sixth / Seventh period ends, school is dismissed

Morning announcements begin at 7:20 each day, first conducted by P.A. system by foreign language teacher Ms. Byers, and usually followed Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday by the daily television broadcast by BCTV, the Bobcat Television Network. These televised announcements include news, information, events, instructions, public service announcements, and student-produced content from both instructional classes and from the BCTV production team.

Afternoon announcements generally take place by P.A. system at approximately 1:48 each day, and are generally conducted by Assistant Principal Warner.

Lunches are conducted between 10:02 and 12:12 during Fourth / Fifth period. There are four lunches, labeled A through D, held in the Commons Area and Enclosed Dining Room on the first floor. A Lunch attends the meal for the first half hour of the period, and attends class for the last 90 minutes. B and C lunches split class, attending class first, then leaving for the meal, before returning to class, for a total of 90 minutes of instruction. D Lunch attends class for the first 90 minutes, and is then released to the meal for the final half hour.

Schedule Correction

The above schedule, which was in error, has been completely rewritten to reflect accurate information and detail the new lunch situation. Bhs itrt 12:50, October 25, 2006 (UTC)

Updates Galore

I've added the latest VDOE information and have updated quite a few statstics based on recent conversations with guidance and documentation from staff members. Hopefully 2006-2007 data will start to roll in and we can get this page updated ahead of even VDOE web resources, though I can only keep my fingers crossed! I also added staff information for several programs, to mirror the format used with (for example) the JROTC section. This provides points-of-contact for information verification... and that's a "wiked" good thing! Bhs itrt 14:25, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

The Latest

PWCS asked BHS to submit information to update the county's "splash pages" for high school vital information, and some of that information has been included here. Specifically, the communities served by Battlefield, updated staff statistics, and a more detailed description of the school's location and region have been included. Bhs itrt 14:24, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Semi-Protected Status Requested

Due to the recent increase in vandalism, I have requested that this page be Semi-Protected against anonymous editing. Bhs itrt 11:38, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Suggestions for improvement

I took a quick look at the article and it is well-written in an objective style, and contains some good information. Great pictures, also: they add a lot to the article. Here's some suggested areas to look at to ensure it conforms to WP style guidelines. Some of these issues are significant enough (especially in the areas of references) that they should be addressed ASAP to retain an "A" rating.

• Infobox — great job on the Infobox design, but consider using one of the existing templates for this, such as {{Template:Infobox Education in the United States}}. This makes it easier for editors unfamiliar with html and wiki mark-up to update the box's info.
• References — all information, especially statistics, needs to be referenced. This makes it verifiable and also easy for other editors to update data — such as AYP, census and SOL info — that changes year-to-year. Make sure ALL sources are cited. Using the standard templates should make this easy for all editors to maintain.

Also, a "Footnotes and references" section should be added at the end of the article. The notes will automatically be formatted and listed if the citation templates are used with the <ref> {cite} </ref> tags.

• Images — remove the size parameter and just use the "thumb" argument. This allows automatic resizing according to the viewers preferences. Example:

[[Image:BRHS Ethnic Breakdown Graph.JPG|thumb|right|Broad Run Ethnicity Analysis — 2006/2007]]

Also, try varying the image positioning a bit just for aesthetics (alternate left/right every now and then). Do not group them together at the beginning of the section — this disrupts the text flow of the page (that's why there are blank areas in the article).

• Address forms — don't use addresses. For instance, don't refer to a principal or teacher as "Mr.", "Ms." or "Dr.". For "Dr.", however, add the title after the person's name (Ed. D.).
• Section headers — Capitalize only the initial word in the section header (unless the word is part of a proper name). For example, "Test Scores" and "Facility Design" should be "Test scores" and "Facility design".
• Dates — format dates with wikilinks. If a date includes both a month and a day, then the date should almost always be linked to allow readers' date preferences to work, displaying the reader's chosen format. The day and the month should be linked together, and the year should be linked separately if present. For example:

Month and day

[[February 17]] → February 17

[[17 February]] → February 17

Day, month, and year

[[February 17]], [[1958]] → February 17, 1958

[[17 February]] [[1958]] → February 17, 1958

[[1958-02-17]] → February 17, 1958

• Also, the Lead should be beefed up. It should summarize the information in the article, and be interesting enough to draw the casual reader into the rest of the article (and identify what makes it notable).

For an example take a look at Broad Run High School. This article took a lot of effort to bring to GA status, much less A. It's not perfect (yet), but conforms to WP Style guidelines and is organized pretty much as suggested by WikiProject Schools (including an standard Infobox and a good Lead).

I hope this helps. Feel free to leave any questions or comments on my Talk page. Good article.

—  Jim Dunning  talk  :  19:19, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Heeding Advice!

Thanks so much for the advice! I've taken the liberty of making as many of your suggested changes as I can for the time being, and will continue to work on compiling sources. A lot of the statistical data is material we generate in-house, so I'll try to get some of our printouts compiled into an actual "report" to keep on file, and in that way can serve as a primary source document.

Formatting-wise and policy-compliance-wise, I certainly see the significant improvements! THANKS!

Bhs itrt 18:01, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Images

In my opinion, the page has waaay too many images; the layout is stretched. Only images that contribute to their respective sections should be included. PhoenixTwo 17:38, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Quality assessment

This in no way disparages the efforts of the editors and current quality of this article, but I'm adjusting the quality level to "B". This does not reflect an actual degradation of it, but places it where it should have originally been assessed.

The article is still in need of cites (especially third-party) and should draw upon WikiProject Schools as a guideline for format and structure. Although not explicitly required, a path through "GA" nomination (and review) on its way to an "A" assessment is a good idea. Excellent progress has been made in the past week or so!

—  Jim Dunning  talk  :  00:26, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Recent Changes: Thumbs Up

Firstly, I can totally appreciate the issue of moving the images to the gallery. While I agree with Jim's assessment that photographic images of this nature add tremendously to getting the sense of a location (particularly as Wikipedia has an obligation to take advantage of the multimedia environment in which it exists), I can fully appreciate Phoenix's perspective from an article-formatting standpoint.

Secondly, as an educator, I have to give full reinforcement to Jim's comments. A grade that isn't "perfect" (not that there is such a thing) isn't a slander, but a vehicle for growth. A clear set of criteria has been established by the WikiSchools project, and that serves as the "rubric" by which editors (myself included) can judge progress and plan future work, not only on this article, but others. In education, we too frequently see people (or we ourselves) get wrapped up in "if it's not A, it's F" mentality.

Particularly with an article about a SCHOOL, I'm glad to see a thoughtful participation in assessment... not grade inflation!

Cheers, Bhs itrt 12:33, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Deleted / Restored Exterior Image

The copyright tag was corrected and the image restored. This was apparently an oversight on my part as the original uploader. I do not recall using a tag that failed to specify the appropriate use, but apparently I did the first time. Oops!

Bhs itrt 23:53, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

GSA @ Battlefield

As of 8:21 AM Eastern Time on Monday, 23 April 2007, there is no active, sanctioned chapter of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Battlefield High School. This is not to pass judgment or to make any kind of statement. I made the edit to remove the listing, as the bot did, not in defiance of Jim's assertion that it is a valid student organization - which it most certainly is - but that it is not a formally-organized student activity at Battlefield.

If there are students who have formed a GSA and are interested in organizing, they should speak to their teachers or counselors to pursue that. There are indeed faculty members that would sponsor such a group.

However, for the sake of accurate encyclopedic content, I have edited it out of the list. This is NOT a sociopolitical statement. It is simply a matter of factual reporting.

Bhs itrt 12:25, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Update: There is a school-wide anti-discrimination organization known as Safe Harbor, sponsored by the Peer Diversity Trainers, that was instituted in 2006.

Bhs itrt (talk) 18:50, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

TownOfHaymarket Sites

I fail to understand what the obsession is with the two TownOfHaymarket sites. This is (in the loosest expression) an encyclopedic resource, not a blog or an advertising forum. Battlefield High School is officially affiliated with the county, not with the town. I would sincerely hope that the editors who keep tacking their links onto this site would instead invest their energies in bettering the Haymarket, Virginia page.

The deliberate attempts to replace the .org with the .info domain and vice versa smack dangerously of nonsensical politicism and foolish tit-for-tat, which has NO place in the field of serious academics or research. I would hope that those who continue to waste time and energy editing the link would better invest their energies in a venue appropriate to "flame wars." I'd venture to say that those invested in the school itself, not window dressing, would much rather that interested activists put their efforts into something worthwhile. There are plenty of Wikipedia articles that are in need of detail and attention.

If Wikipedia is to grow as a serious encyclopedic resource, those who participate in the editing of the site would do well to stick to encyclopedic content. Just my two cents.

Bhs itrt 21:13, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Removed Statistic and Correct Info

Recently I reverted an edit that stated that over 50% of graduating students attended [Northern_Virginia_Community_College|NOVA] (Northern Virginia Community College) as vandalism. The statistic was not cited and appeared an effort to malign, though I must state for the record that attending NOVA is an outstanding goal for any student, and I've known more than a few very successful young people that studied there.

According to the Career Center at Battlefield, in 2006-2007, 166 students attended NVCC-Manassas, 2 attended NVCC-Annandale, 1 attended NVCC-Germanna, and 4 students attended an out-of-state two year program. In 2006-2007, 47% of students attended a two-year college, not over 50%.

If anyone feels this is worthy of inclusion in the article, by all means feel free. The source is the PWCS 2006-2007 School Profile. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bhs itrt (talk • contribs) 13:30, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Pwcs logo blue.jpg

Image:Pwcs logo blue.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 19:24, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Logo Conversation

The editor who added the comment about the school athletic team logo bearing a more than passing resemblance to that of the Charlotte Bobcats is quite correct; the logo is a nearly-identical replica. On a recent Sports Law blog post, writer Samuel Lea lent the following anecdote:

While I did not find anything specific eluding to that fact, it was blatantly obvious that if the NFL does allow those logos to be used, their reeping considerable benefit from there use.

Not only are they increasing interests in the game and creating new fans for life, they are ending up eventually seeing these same little players grow up to put on the real thing.

The “Pop Warner ” football league is one such youth league that uses the NFL’s team’s colors and logos on their jerseys. On their web site they have several quotes from people such as the commissioner of the NFL praising the leagues efforts and has a list of current NFL players that came out of the Pop Warner youth football leagues.

I have heard on more than a few occasions, however, people comment (and not just about the BHS Bobcat) how unfortunate it is that some schools don't take a golden opportunity to have the kids and the community help build a strong school identity with an original piece of artwork. A debate that will rage forever, I suppose!

As it stands, I'd be surprised if Charlotte broke precedent and filed suit. I don't think anyone's too worried about it, and now that the logo is in place, changing it would likely draw the ire of those who have identified with it and rallied around it for the past several years.

Bhs itrt (talk) 18:48, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Need for more updates and references and deletion of restored unreferenced material

This article is a bit of a mess right now, and without trying to offend anyone, if this article was ever truly a "B", it is not worthy of that classification now. I would hope that it can be restored to a "B", or exceed that in the near future.

There is an extensive need for referencing.

A great deal of the data (attendance , scores, etc) are at least two years out of date.

Also, there is a misunderstanding by an anon editor who restored information that had been deleted in their opinion, "without adequate justification". I have restored many of those deletions, and have provided adequate justification. To further add justification, I would point any editor to wikipedia's verifiability policy, and specifically the section which outlines the duty of editors to aggressively remove unreferenced claims.

I've been out of the major loop on this article for a while, and have gladly taken the sagacious advice above, and took some time to clean up the article yesterday. Looking at the six "B Article" criteria listed on the rubric, I think this article is either close to or back at B grade. If the previous poster disagrees, by all means, some additional clarifying points would be great for anyone (including me) who wants to pitch in to improve it! Bhs itrt (talk) 16:47, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Re-assessment

Following comments posted on my talk page, I am re-assessing this article for WikiProject Schools. Firstly, I'm downgrading this school's importance to low. The overwhelming majority of schools with articles are of low importance, and don't see much in this article which justifies a higher rating. I take note of the Newsweek magazine ranking, but really more than this (such as notable alumni) are needed for a higher importance rating. I'm also re-assessing this article to C-class. When this article was originally assessed as B-class in 2007, C-class did not exist and as a result the standards for B-class were lower then than they are now. The main problem with this article is lack of referencing in some sections, which does not meet the standards needed for B-class per WP:BCLASS criterion one. Furthermore, inline citations should be used universally over a general reference list. Much of the article can still be expanded and there should be an alumni section if possible. The lead needs to better summarise the article per WP:LEAD. It is good to see images in the article, though really these should all (except the logo) be transferred over to Wikimedia Commons so they can be used on all Wikimedia Projects. Miscellaneous galleries at the end of the article are discouraged per WP:GALLERIES. If general galleries are desired, they can be created on Common and linked to from the article - see Amador Valley High School as an example of this done well. CT Cooper · talk 21:48, 25 March 2011 (UTC)

External links modified

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