As the 2025-2026 school year winds down, another year quietly enters the books, capped off by today’s graduation for the Class of 2026. The once loud, chaotic halls of Branford High will once again fall quiet over the summer.

The Branford Buzz news desk, also known as Mr. Miller’s classroom in D27, will also fall quiet, but this time permanently, as he relocates to room B20 down the hall.

After another summer, the school doors will once again open to a sea of new seniors, ready for their best year of high school, and the new Class of 2030, looking to make their mark at BHS.

In fact there will be many new changes at the school, quite literally as BHS gets renovated over the summer. And as the school will change for next year, so will The Branford Buzz.

I, Owen Lentner, will be resigning from my position of Editor-in-Chief, as I close the chapter on my time in Branford, and move out of state.

You Can’t Write an Exposé Without Citing a Quote

My first few weeks at The Buzz were nothing flashy. I was a freshman, starting the 2024-25 year, in a new town. I moved to Branford a few weeks before starting ninth grade, and knew absolutely no one.

In my first week at BHS, I saw a message on TVs around the school about how The Buzz was looking for more reporters, and to see Advisor Bing Miller in D27.

I ended up doing just that, making my way to his room after school one day, and joining the paper. I remember how excited I was when I got the login info to the website, and the feeling I got when I published my own story.

I quickly learned, however, that no one else was writing for The Buzz, besides my then junior sister and another girl, who seldom published. Nevertheless, I decided to stay. Early on I stuck with the easiest type of journalism… The News.

Throughout my freshman year, I took up easy, short stories that were interesting enough for readers to click on. My first published piece was one on the Cross Country team’s upcoming race to Rhode Island, published in September, 2024.

This story was the exact opposite of flashy – It had no quotes, very little structure, and barely broke 200 words.

This story, and my future ones as well, taught me an important (and cliché) lesson: What you put in is what you get out.

I remember eagerly checking the website views after publishing Cross Country story, and seeing the maybe 20 or 30 clicks I got. I knew that what I wrote, and would continue to write, wasn’t gold and woudn’t win any awards or ruffle any feathers, but I kept going.

Story after story, I stuck to a regimen: find out what was going on at school, and report on it.

The powder-puff game is next Tuesday… news.

A gym teacher is becoming the athletic director… news.

A catered breakfast event is being held at school for MLK Day… news.

One after the other, I built up an arsenal of skills: How to write a lede, how to structure a story, how to interview a source, how to cite a quote.

By the end of my freshman year, I had close to 15 decent stories published… again, nothing commendable, but these stories were practice, laying down my foundation for sophomore year.

The Buzz’s Revival

Upon returning back to BHS after a short summer, I, yet again, was the only writer… or so I thought.

Miller had noted to me that a few new freshmen students were interested in joining, who also wrote a joint story together right as school started. Upon meeting ninth-graders Vesa Bejleri, Zara Serrano, and Lucy Mitchell for the first time, I felt like The Branford Buzz was taking it’s much needed next step.

As the new members and myself began to publish regularly, I began to naturally fill into the role of editor, writing my own stories, and polishing theirs before publication.

At first it was easy; a few extra stories to edit each week was no big deal… until we began to publish more and more, and gain more and more staff.

By November, we had maybe seven total staff, typically publishing twice a week.

Then Christmas rolled around, and the staff of seven turned into 10. By this point, I was not only editing and writing my own stories, but also making promotions that would go on the TVs around the school, sending out our newsletter, tending to the bulletin board daily, working on fixing the dated website, and assigning / managing assignments.

Thus, my present for Christmas was being named Editor-in-Chief by Miller.

The Last Six Months

Upon returning to school in January, we continued to write regular stories and serve the larger purpose that a viable student newspaper should serve – providing an unbiased and honest account of the Branford High School community, which was my vision for the paper… a vision for any good paper.

We went up to running three stories per week, getting on big stories like the class elections, winter sports rundown, our own exclusive AI in Schools series, and the graduation displacement off the town green, among others.

By the end of the 2025-26 school year, we finished with almost 20 staff reporters, and three awards for Journalistic Excellence, including co-winning first-place for the Best School Newspaper in New England, by the New England Scholastic Press Association.

As The Buzz published more and more, traction in the school grew and the word spread: The Buzz is back.

As the school year thus winds down now, so will the paper, barring a few summer features to come.

The Buzz and BHS have been my home for two years… and our revival of the paper will be something I’ll never forget.

To our dedicated staff for the 2025-26 school year: Thank you for all your hard work and initiatiave this year, helping make it one of my most rewarding and enjoyable ones.

A special congratulations to Buzz contributors Caitlyn Lentner and Aziley Crespo, two of the 179 BHS graduates who earned diplomas today.

And to our readers: Without you, The Branford Buzz would be nowhere near where it is today; thank you for your overwhelming support!