Newhope Paints Pretty Pictures on a Shoestring : Elementary school creates award-winning arts program with hard work and paper towels.

When teachers at Newhope School filled out the application for a prestigious national arts competition, one question stumped them.

“The entry form asked, ‘How many people are in your art department?’ ” recalls principal Jim Franklin. “Frankly, we don’t have an art department.”

But that didn’t stop the school from entering--and winning--a top award in the contest. Newhope, part of the Garden Grove Unified School District, is one of only three California and 56 nationwide schools to be honored by the National Assn. of Arts and Education.

Thanks to the efforts of teachers Robbie Fitzgerald and Sandi Sarver, Newhope has managed to put together a visual arts program that reaches all 640 pupils from kindergarten through sixth grade.

“The program could not be done without these two teachers,” says Franklin. “They have taken the time and have the talent to make it work. Without them, there would be no program.”

Fitzgerald teaches second grade and Sarver teaches fourth. But both teachers have an interest in art. So, 10 years ago, the two women agreed to also become art coordinators for their school.

And they do it all without a budget.

“All I’ve done is buy them two art portfolios and pat them on the back,” says Franklin.

Some supplies were purchased 10 years ago and are still being used. Others such as tempera and watercolors are purchased annually, from the district warehouse, out of the regular school funds. For example, Franklin estimates that the two art portfolios cost about $80, and like the brushes and some other supplies, the portfolios will be used year after year.

“We don’t have a specific budget,” says Fitzgerald. “We use cardboard found in crafts tissue paper packets. We have even painted on paper towels. We teach them to be pack rats.”

Says Sarver: “We really teach them to take care of the materials, and we don’t waste supplies.”

Instead of being treated as a separate field of study, art is part of nearly everything children do at the school.

For example, Fitzgerald points out that art is integrated with writing so that children illustrate their stories and also write about what they draw. Then, at the end of the year, Newhope presents an art show.

“Everybody participates,” says Sarver. “Every single child will have an entry.” Art created this year will be on display today during Newhope’s open house or may be viewed from 8 to 10:30 a.m. Friday.

Pupils like 11-year-old Chante Reinhart, a fifth-grader, are veteran exhibitors. Chante, who began studying while in kindergarten at Newhope, has a portfolio of nearly 30 paintings. Two of her works were exhibited in the children’s division of the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts last year.

“I was very excited,” Chante says. “I mean, this was the big Laguna Beach arts festival. I didn’t think I could make it there.”

Franklin points out that Chante wasn’t the only Newhope pupil to have her artwork accepted into the show: “Last year we had 14 entries, this year we have 11. Most other schools have only one or two.”

Children from Newhope have also had their work on display in Orange County’s Imagination Celebration, the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival and on public television station KCET. The children also participate in local women’s club shows and shows at libraries.

Their work even adorns the walls of the school office, along with a copy of an article from Arts and Activities magazine that features sixth-grader Daniel Tran. Tran also did the cover of the school’s official notebook.

“We have even had people offer to buy our students’ work,” says Sarver. “Although some pieces have been sold, most students prefer to keep their work.”

Fitzgerald says some of the parents think the paintings are so good that they frame them and display them prominently at home. Chante Reinhart’s mother, Linda, says she intends to frame two of her daughters recent pieces which are on display at the school.

“I have been very impressed with the art at the school,” says Reinhart. “It is overwhelming when you think of the different backgrounds that the kids are coming from, to see the diversity and variety of all the different media they use.”

Reinhart credits the two teachers who run the program with turning it into an award-winner. “It really says a lot about the staff,” she says.

Sandi Sarver points out that the program is unusual for an elementary school, many of which have cut back or discontinued their art programs because of budget problems. “This type of program is usually offered more at a junior high level,” she says.

Both teachers say that running the program takes a lot of extra time and effort, but they believe that art is an important part of the curriculum. “Once they succeed in art, they can succeed in everything else,” Fitzgerald says. “It translates into reading and math and everything.”

Franklin agrees. “We’ve seen these little guys just feel good about themselves,” he says. “And that brings everything up a notch. I can’t measure it, but I feel it. The students perform better.”