It is no doubt that Western Branch has changed over the years, since it’s establishment in 1968. Many teachers have seen the school go through an immense amount of change.

“I do think the student body has change a lot,” said teacher and alumni Ms. Bunting, “I think the school had a lot more cohesiveness, closeness when we were smaller.”

One big change to the school, is in the notable difference in the building. While the school’s architecture was considered to be modern for the time that it was built, we have definitely made some changes.

This is primarily because of the addition of the wing known as F hall. “It’s definitely larger,” said guidance counselor Ms. Strek.

When the school was being built, Churchland was part of Chesapeake. The year that the school was to start enrolling, the seniors at Churchland High School were given the option as to which school they would like to finish their schooling. This lead to a large rivalry between the two schools. Along with this rivalry came the endless pranks. The students would try to prank Churchland and would camp out to make sure that Churchland wouldn’t prank them.

“I don’t see as many traditions as I used to see,” said Ms. Bunting, “and that is a shame.”

Many teachers that have been here a while have stated that when the school was smaller the staff and students were closer. As the school grew it lost some of that closeness.

“I used to know every teachers name, could tell you what they taught, who they were,” said Ms. Bunting, “I pretty much knew their schedules.”

The SCA used to put on dances and decorate every month. They also went all out for homecoming. They used to have bonfires and students used to skip class on that Friday to decorate their floats for the parade during homecoming week. Students also used to go to every football game. These are prime examples of how involved the student body used to be in the school.

“There were traditions that have kind of gone by the wayside,” said Ms. Bunting, “the traditions were always fun.”

One of the defining characteristics of  the school are the colors and the mascot. The year that they were getting everything together for the school, was also the first year for the New Orleans Saints, whose colors were navy blue and old gold, and that’s the way the colors were selected. The mascot was decided by the student body casting a vote between five different mascots. Eventually the Bruin won and it has been our mascot ever since.

“I don’t think that the change is just here,” said Ms. Strek, ” I think there’s a change overall.”