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The inclusive Fine Arts Magnet Program in York County Schools offers students from kindergarten to graduation multiple opportunities to engage in the arts, whether it's dance, theater, music, or literature.
When you walk into one of their programs at Waller Mill Elementary School or at Queens Lake Middle or the School of the Arts Program at Bruton High School the energy level and excitement in those classrooms is exhilarating. York County is providing students engaging opportunities that will be crucial to their success. Finding areas of interest for students is extremely important. Once you find an area that's interesting for students, they're more likely to want to succeed and dive into that further. Through this program students learn self-confidence, how to work cooperatively, and how to be creative.
“Keeping students engaged is our number one priority through elementary, through their middle school years, and into high school,” says Vic Shandorthe school division superintendent. He goes on to say, “Keeping kids connected to school, connected to teachers, connected to content, again, whether that's athletically, whether that's through the arts, or extracurricular activities, keeping them connected is the most important thing. If we can engage them in exciting opportunities, they're going to want number one, to stay in school, and number two, they're going to be able to expand their horizons for moving on to be productive citizens in their life.”
The Middle School Arts Magnet is by lottery. Students who are interested can put in an application as long as they meet the basic requirements. Students are each given a number and the administration draws 60 numbers from a bingo machine to fill the available slots. There are 20 slots for sixth grade, 20 for seventh grade, and 20 for eighth grade. The program always has a waiting list at every grade.
For the School of the Arts, the high school program, the students have to audition. They are given a basic reading comprehension test. The administration interviews them and then each of the strands has them do something a little different. The writing asks them to bring a portfolio and makes them write. The technical theater has them bring a resume and pictures of any artwork they've done and then they take a math measurement test. The dancers have a thirty-two count dance that they have to do and the theater hopefuls do an actual theater audition.
Students take core curriculum courses in the high school program however there is an emphasis on the social and political implications of art and the historical time periods and how they affect both the visual art and the theater especially in technical theater. Students always do research before any show. When we have production meetings, they talk about where they are going to set the show. When they did Antigone last year, they set it in Cuba in the fifties. They had to rethink what they were originally planning for their set designs. Teachers make sure that it's rigorous and that they are getting everything that they need to pass SOLs and to pass AP tests, however they also to be creative and to become independent learners and thinkers.
The elementary program hasan enhanced focus on the arts including music, dance for PE, and drama. Teachers have the task of balancing, covering those standards for each grade level while integrating the arts. A second grade teacher covering place value might incorporate some music instead of children doing that in a traditional way with a worksheet or maybe some physical counters on their desk. The teacher would have children tap out on a xylophone the ones and then hitting something different for the tens. They have opportunities throughout the week to experience the arts. They may draw a picture to show their comprehension of a story they've read or they may be able to dance a math concept in a class or make a small skit to show what they have learned.
The School for the Arts has relationships with the theaters, and other venues for students to perform in the area including the Kimball Theater, Busch Gardens and Colonial Williamsburg. Students get real world experience as well as stage experience through these partnerships. Past graduates also come back and address the students. Former graduate Peter Mitchell, a main character in the traveling Book of Mormon show and actor on three Glee for episodes, recently did a workshop for the current students. He talked to them about what it takes to make it in the real world and what it's really like.
“While many of their do go on to work in the arts, they have just as many who go on to work in other fields, lawyers, doctors and teachers,” said Elizabeth Milne, School of the Arts program coordinator. Laura Press, a sophomore at SUNY in New York, works backstage and has helped design several different shows on Broadway and off Broadway. Several other past students are on Broadway working both backstage and on stage. Others are preforming in Atlantic City, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.
“There's no other school I would want to be at, shared Theatre Arts teacherKerri DiFiore. “I think it's that same for some children who may not be the very best readers or the very best math students, when they are on stage or they are in front of that instrument or that microphone or the potter's wheel or the paintbrush, to see how very talented they are and all the many gifts that they have to offer, that it's not always in that traditional sense that we think of, maybe making the best grades, but that they have gifts to share and a lot of different ways to show what they know.”
