Brewster High School is a comprehensive public secondary school in

Brewster, New York Brewster is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village and the principal settlement within the town (New York), town of Southeast, New York, Southeast in Putnam County, New York, Putnam County, New York (state), New York, United Sta ...

, for grades 9 – 12 with an enrollment of approximately 1,100 students and over 110 teachers and support personnel. It was built in 1971, and was the fourth building added to the Brewster Central School District. The building grew in size with the addition of music, math, and science wings due to a major bond issue in 1999.

NJROTC Unit

The NJROTC is a program of academic courses, co-curricular activities involving field trips to naval and military bases and extracurricular opportunities, including interschool exhibition drill and athletics. Periodic opportunities for cruises on naval ships will be offered. Chances for selection for advanced leadership training at service sponsored leadership academies exist while the cadet is in high school. There is no requirement for affiliation with the armed forces after graduation. The emphasis is on citizenship development and practical leadership experience. The academic portion of the program is functionally divided into three non-sequential courses; NJROTC 1R through NJROTC 3R and covers various disciplines including: career planning, study skills, early naval history and current naval ships and aircraft. Instruction is provided in military drill, leadership skills, naval tradition, navigation, 19th century naval history, nautical rules of the road, and oceanography. The NJROTC 4R course for seniors is structured as a seminar course with emphasis is placed on performance in various duties in the cadet company based upon previous experience, if any, in the program. Since around 2010, the high school has maintained a company sized Naval Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corps, currently led by Commander Earl Waidelech, who will be retiring by 2022. The corps is currently organised into the following: * Corps High Staff (Commander, Chief, and Civilian Assistant) * Corps Staff (Students, elected by the corps) * A Company (1-3 Platoons) * B Company (4-6 Platoons) * Armed Drill Platoon (equipped with

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, all formerly used in active-duty) * Unarmed Senior Drill Platoon (Juniors & Seniors, only Petty Officer 1st Class +) * Unarmed Junior Drill Platoon (Freshmen & Sophomores) * (2016–2017) Corps Band * (2017–2018 season) Trick Elite Team

Marching Band

Since before 2007, the high school has maintained a

marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who play while marching. Historically they were used in armed forces and many marching bands remain military bands. Others are still associated with military units or emulate a military sty ...

known as the Brewster High School Marching Band, commonly referred to as the "Marching Bears". Members of the marching band are volunteers and can join from grades 8–12, and students aren't required to part of the performing arts to take part. From 2007 to 2016, the band leader was Mr. George Velucci, also led the high school's orchestra and jazz band, he was replaced by Chief Christopher Valangas, who was replaced in 2017 after he was arrested for having an affair with another student. The current band leader, since 2017, is Mr. Brian Sanyshyn, who also leads the C. V. Starr Intermediate School band. The band's assistant director in 2018 and 2019 was Mrs. Andrea Perdicho, who leads the high school band. * Band Director ** ????–2017 Mr. George Viglucchi ** 2017–2017 Chief Christopher Valangas (arrested and subsequently removed) ** 2018–Present Mr. Brian Sanyshyn * Band Assistant ** 2016–2017 Chief Christopher Valangas ** 2017–2017 Mr. Brian Sanyshyn ** 2018–2020 Mrs. Andrea Perdicho * Yearly Focus ** 2011–2012 Wizard of Oz ** 2017–2018, Ocean & Navies ( Pirates of the Caribbean (dead man's chest), Russian Sailor's Dance, and Come Sail Away) ** 2018–2019,

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( Summon the Heroes

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, and

Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton, centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of De-extinction#Cloning, cloned dinosaurs. It bega ...

) ** 2020–2021

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(

We Will Rock You "We Will Rock You" is a song by the British rock band Queen from their 1977 album '' News of the World'', written by guitarist Brian May. ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it number 330 of " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and the RIAA it p ...

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, We Are the Champions, Somebody to Love,

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) The band has performed at many high-profile events, including a wedding proposal on the

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(see:

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). Each year the band performs at the New York City Saint Patrick's Day Parade (since 2008), and Brewster's

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. It i ...

parade. The period between band camp in August till Thanksgiving is referred to as the "Football Season", when the band performs their half time show during the home games for

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. The later period between the end of winter break (end of February) and June is referred to as the "Marching Season". The band has performed at many events including: *

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Saint Patrick's Day Parade Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (), is a religious and cultural holiday held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patron saint of Ireland. Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Chris ...

* On the deck of the

* Edison Pageant of Light Parade in

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* On the

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In 2013 the band performed at the

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

and

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

. In 2017, the band started annually performing at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

during the 2K Empire Classic if a college/university's pep band can't perform themselves. In 2017, this was for

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

, 2018 for

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, and again in 2019 for Berkley. In 2018 the band started to perform annually during the June

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. In 2021 the band was due to go to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

with the NJROTC colour guard (which normally accompany them to events), but this was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United States On December 31, 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The first American case was reported on January 20, and United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Human Services Secreta ...

. The current organisation of the band includes: * Band Staff * Percussion Section * Brass Section * Low Brass Section * Woodwind Section * Color Guard (non-NJROTC) * Supporting Staff & Boosters (non-band members who help the band during events)

Notable events

In October 2017 the NJROTC leader, Christopher L. Vlangas, was charged with one count of criminal sexual act and two counts of rape in the third degree. These charges came about after his relationship with a 16-year-old student were reported to a high school staff member. The morning Brew was created in September 2021, it is a morning show that airs biweekly. The episodes contain information about school events and changes. There is also a sports segment.

Notable alumni

Michael Imperioli Michael Imperioli (born March 26, 1966) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti in the HBO crime drama series ''The Sopranos'' (1999–2007), which earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Suppor ...

(1983), actor *

Jason Dellaero Jason Christopher Dellaero (born December 17, 1976) is an American former shortstop in Major League Baseball. He played for the Chicago White Sox in 1999. Dellaero was drafted by the New York Mets in the 17th round of the 1994 Major League Base ...

, Major League Baseball player for the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

References

External links

Brewster Central School District Home PageThe Morning Brew Youtube channel
{{authority control Public high schools in New York (state) Schools in Putnam County, New York