In what looks to be the start of a whole new initiative in Bayonne High School, the Bayonne Board of Education voted recently to establish an “arts academy.”
This, according to Joan Rosen, director of music and arts for the school district, will require no additional teachers or classes, but will make use of arts programs that already exist within the system.
This initiative begins a state required restructuring of high schools to create smaller learning environments, and according to Dr. Ellen O’Connor, will be the first in a number of academies dedicated to specific careers.
O’Connor said the focus will be to create learning environments designed to promote specific career paths using existing classes in arts, mathematics, sciences and such to create a body of study that will prepare kids for each career.
The arts academy will include 24 students from entering freshmen through high school juniors who are interested in pursuing a career in the performing arts, said Rosen.
Students would have to apply, pass an academic screening, and conduct an audition or present a portfolio to a screening board.
“We want these students to come together as a group for a common experience.” – Joan Rosen
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Each year, a new group of 24 students will be selected, each group working on a joint project during those four years that would make use of their individual talents for performance, production, writing or other aspects of the performing or visual arts.
While students would not be separated from the school population, they would be required to take a series of courses as part of this arts concentration, similar to the way students do in college.
“We want these students to come together as a group for a common experience,” she said.
Students would still be required to take traditional classes needed for graduation, however.
A student’s schedule would be adjusted to allow for one extra 40-minute period per day.
Rosen said the academy will run “with the existing staff – we had to design a program that would not be a financial burden on the district.”
Although these students would not attend all the same classes at the same time, they would be involved with a single project that would allow them to incorporate their learning and talents, and increase their group identity.
Rosen said the students would take a common course that would require the redesign of a previous program called the Metropolitan Creating Original Opera Course, renamed the Creative Me Renaissance Project.
Each group will create an original composition that will be aired each spring.
Academy students will also be required to perform before the Board of Education each October, demonstrating their own particular art form.
Rosen, who is president of the Arts Administrators Association of the State of New Jersey, said she has had a chance to review the state’s requirements for smaller learning communities, developed within existing larger structures such as Bayonne High School, and that this meets this goal.
She said Bayonne students already excel in the arts locally, statewide, and nationally, creating a natural base for such a program in the high school.
Currently, students need five credits of arts to graduate to meet state requirements.
These students will be able to take at least 40 credits in the arts and still meet other state required courses.
Rosen said this will give students something very significant to present to a college or a professional program after graduation.
The students will attend a professional rehearsal at the Met, which is already contracted through the school and will not cost the district additional funds.
Rosen said students will be able to see how performances are staged, such as how things are orchestrated, how blocking is done on the stage, and how production advances from early stages to the final performance.
“And they get to see the final full dress rehearsal, which is a full production,” Rosen said. “They get to speak to some of the creative artists when they do a back stage tour.”
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.