Arts Academy Revitalization Action Team

David: Why do you want to be an academy?

Phil: for kids that won’t be in one thing, we can offer co-curricular activities.

Vicky: comprehensive curriculum that offers all subjects taught in the context of the students’ art.

Lisa: attract more students; we can offer more kinds of programs to more kinds of students. We can expose more students to arts than we could previously. Kids would have more pride being in an academy.

Phil: possibility of being more of a magnet program for the state?

David: How autonomous from PATHS do you want to be?

Phil: still connected to PATHS

David gave a summary of a school that we might want to look at: the Julie B. Richmond School in NYC. At one point it had 3500 students with a 22% graduation rate (compared to NYC’s average of 35%). Problems with violence were getting worse, and finally the school was shut down. The building was reopened and now houses 7 or 8 autonomous schools in the same building. Some schools share teachers (decided by the school councils). The individual schools have complete budget autonomy. This would be harder to do in Maine because so much of the budget goes to salaries, and schools with more senior teachers would cost more.

Phil: South Boston did something like that, with 3 different schools in one.

Tom: I wouldn’t advise that kind of autonomy, but I would encourage an academy model + outside teachers and curriculum sharing.

David: Noble HS has academies, each with its own leadership council + 1 leadership council for the whole school.

David: I’m nervous about the "school within a school" idea, because of problems with "special treatment" [of the inner school by the outer school], etc., but "creating new opportunities for kids", à la Casco Bay High School, is a good idea. I would explore a comprehensive high school, because then you have ownership over the kids, rather than the sending schools owning them. Voc/tech as we have it set up now doesn’t make sense. It should be 9-12.

Elizabeth: are there other schools that turned voc into comprehensive?

David: Worchester [Wooster?]

David: Selling the arts: combine idea of learning of the arts with learning through the arts. Kids might not go into art, but it’s how they learn using arts to make them well-rounded.

David: problem with acquisition of credit: kids have all kinds of requirements now, 4 years of English, 3 years of science with labs, foreign language, etc.

Tom: they don’t have to acquire them in content-area classes…

David: there is some wiggle room. But we want to help kids with their transcript, not hurt them.

Tom: how do we decide that kids here are held to the same standards, and how do we show that?

Elizabeth: we’re not trying to create something for the best and brightest. If we were, sending schools would be afraid that their best students would be lost. But this program wants to integrate and create opportunities–it’s not elitist at all.

David: High school success is so tied to socio-economic issues that you’ll be in trouble when you only steer towards kids having trouble. You want smart kids to come to PATHS too. You need to attract incredibly smart kids who aren’t being served in the current system. You need to sell that.

Lisa/Vicky talked about Jocelyn Gammon’s problems getting PHS to let her come to PATHS.

John: we need to tell those stories.

David: I’d shy away from the elitist magnet school, but go for a school for kids who learn through the arts.

Tom: heterogeneous grouping is successful–we’ve seen that.

Lisa: we want to be great at what we do, but also be inclusive.

David: you need to think about logistics: sports teams, co-curricular activities. Julia Richmond HS as an example: some schools combine activities. Also, with 75 students, you can’t be structured by class. You need cross-content-area certification [for teachers], and you can’t organize yourself by courses. See: "The MET" school in Rhode Island. They have very small numbers, an individual program for each kid, and courses happen for part of each day, and then they’re out in the Providence community doing activities. Here in Portland, the community involvement opportunities are very great. Talk to the Dodge Foundation, to people connected with the Portland Museum of Art, and connect with the school board. Initially there might be some increased costs associated with starting a new academy, but then it should be sustainable.

David: see edvisions.com for a foundation that starts schools. <reiterates that a school of 125 can’t look like a school of 400, and needs to have a different organizational structure and fairly autonomous control over budget>

David: possible school structure: 4 academies. Each would have to have kids full-time (at least you should plan for that over the long term). Each of you [teachers] have 12-14 kids you’re watching over. Kids can move across academies, as long as your students are all from your own academy [you're not watching over/advising kids from another academy].

David: Ref: Bow High School in Bow, NH, has arts embedded in all curricula. An English teacher could team-teach to embed English in all courses.

Tom: district politics: this group should model the plan before jumping into the whole school.

Phil: hard climate to become autonomous (remember the stink about Casco Bay in the community). Easier to incorporate models we have rather than becoming a separate entity.

John: we could hire a literacy specialist for an academy. Not all of PATHS wants to move to an academy model.

David: I would get the school committee to endorse your new model for an academy. Greater enrollment would be a good sell, and of course outside funding would definitely help! you also need some buy-in from the rest of the school. "You can’t step too far out from the others." <suggested a 2-year demonstration of the model for the rest of the school>. You need all of the faculty on board, understanding what you’re doing.

John: some programs may reject this because they’re doing a great job providing a workforce for a hard trade.

David: if you think a kid is going to get a job out of high school and keep it for 40 years, you’re wrong. We have to give kidsa chance — look at the community colleges: the average student age is 27.

Phil: a lot of the staff thinks becoming comprehensive will keep us alive. If we can provide a model for the future of the school, it might help to bring people on board.

David: you need to get really clear about what outcomes you want and where you’re falling short right now. Students should be able to gain employment in the program of their choice AND get a good education for future schooling and opportunities. You also need to figure out the financial model for the number of staff and students and show how it will look over 2 years.

Elizabeth: do we need a director for the academy?

David: think about different governing structures. Look at different schools, shared responsibilities. Example: East End School’s "teacher leaders".

David: <reiterates the need for co-curriculars>: you want "the average kid", so think about the co-curriculars (sports teams, etc.). If a student is here all day, the connection to a home school’s extracurriculars is not that strong. Why not offer a soccer team? Or combine with Casco Bay HS?

[Note: CBHS had to deal with this also]

David: I would play the political will about choice. "The Arts Academy at PATHS is not for every kid, but for those it’s for, it’s phenomenal."

David: you need to ask, "are the things we’re offering the things that will give kids the skills they need?" Be reflective and self-critical and ruthless about making programs change. You have to geographically cluster your students. (He meant that all of our programs should be in the same place in the building). In terms of a new building, go the route of "community space" for a theater, etc., and capitalize on connections with the arts community.

David: you want measurable outcomes. Graduation rates, college-bound kids, etc. Think about organization. Think about money: how much will it cost and how will you get money for your vision. Aim for 150-170 kids because of the new teachers required (for English, Math, Science, Soc. Studies, foreign language).

David provided us with a handout from the CES Small Schools Project (CES ChangeLab).