Although I'm one of those people who took a while to figure out what the School was (was thinking "BB's going all harry potter on us or something?"😉), I definitly LOVE the addition! The different sections are really fun seem to have encouraged a lot of people to come out and post. The houses, initially, made me fear a little bit about what this meant for our beloved boards (I was afraid it was going to separate the members as a whole, create major competition and all that nasty stuff) but I was more than pleasantly surprised when I found my home in VH and realised that that wasn't the case at all. The houses seem to give even the littlest member a sense of belonging, and "dorm war" jokes aside, it seems to have, if anything, improved the general friendly and family like feel of the boards (which is something I've always liked most about BB).
As far as the "separating out" of the off-topic forums, the only thing I'd be hesistant about is that I've been on many boards where they've done it and it does get... choppy I suppose? I mean it's more organized but it just seems to be a little stiff and TOO restrictive for my tastes, I personally like the more "casual" non-buffy discussions. That's just my opinion though, I'm sure there's many people who'd like the idea. But I liked the idea mentioned somewhere before about informing the newbies about the houses and such, I think that if they knew about the different parts of the boards right after they joined (and maybe knew how to and got sorted into a house) it could encourage them to post and make them feel more at home. 🙂
But anyway, back to the point, I LOOOOOOOOOVE BB's School and I think you did an awesome job with it! Added in some new "pzaaz" yet still managed to keep that BB feel and, of course, our roots as hardcore Buffyverse fans. My hat goes off to all who were involved in its making.... me like 😀