Schools to embrace arts

Jeff Benson

The Newport-Mesa school board expected to place a greater emphasis on

the visual and performing arts when its members drafted its five-year

strategic plan in November.

But at least one of its schools doesn’t have to wait five years to

ensure that’s a reality.

Costa Mesa’s Sonora Elementary School and St. John the Baptist

Catholic School are among five Orange County schools chosen earlier

this month for the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s five-year

ArtsConnect program.

The initiative is designed to incorporate the arts into the core

curriculum, officials said.

ArtsConnect’s orientation and first teacher-training session is

Jan. 12.

“We’re just very excited, because we feel like we’re all sort of

lacking in the fine arts area, especially with all of the budget

cuts,” Sonora Principal Christine Anderson said.

“It’s very exciting to us to know we have this partnership with

the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

“All of us, as educators, want to integrate the arts into the

curriculum, but we don’t know how.

“This will provide the training.”

The program will provide teachers with training and instructional

materials, so they can find more creative ways to teach their

students.

It’ll also employ artists who will present free student assemblies

and classroom demonstrations, said Nancy Warzer-Brady, the center’s

associate director of education.

“With the Strategic Plan of the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District, [the center’s ArtsConnect selection committee was] actually

making the selections and decisions, and the day after our site

visit, it was a major factor in our decision to select that school.

“From all aspects and levels, we see strong support at the

district level.”

Only the first-grade teachers will receive training when the

program kicks off Jan. 12, but second-grade teachers will be trained

in the fall of 2005, third-grade teachers in the fall of 2006 and so

on.

Each grade will implement its techniques the following year,

Warzer-Brady said. Sonora has students enrolled through only third

grade.

The schools are responsible for covering the cost of busing

students to the Orange County Performing Arts Center for various

performances, as well as paying for substitutes to cover classes the

four days each year that teachers will be trained, Warzer-Brady said.

The district will cover the cost of Sonora’s substitutes, and the

school’s PTA will likely pay for the students’ busing, Anderson said.

Other schools participating include Taft Elementary School in

Santa Ana, Santiago Elementary School in Lake Forest and Stanford

Elementary School in Garden Grove, Warzer-Brady said.

Each of the schools was selected through an application and

interview process.

The ArtsConnect selection committee met Nov. 23 with Costa Mesa

City Councilwoman Katrina Foley, who has a 6-year-old son attending

Sonora; Newport-Mesa school board member Martha Fluor; first-grade

teachers; and a group of parents.

Foley said the group persuaded the committee to recognize the

school district’s commitment to its five-year strategic plan, which

places a great emphasis on the establishment of more arts programs in

the curriculum and to consider Costa Mesa because it is known as the

City of the Arts.

* JEFF BENSON covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at jeff.benson@latimes.com.