BY
EARLENE WARD - FOR THE SIERRA STAR
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
The new music classroom building opened this year at YHS. Work is
currently underway to remodel the old music and drama classroom
into a 400-seat performing arts center.
The
Yosemite High School Chamber Singers pose with their awards from
the Anaheim Festival. The group scored enough points to be invited
to the a national festival in 2005.
Lunchbox
theater: The students performed several times during the 2003-04
school year.
Yosemite High art teacher Rivka Schaffner (right) talks to a guest
at the opening of the Badger Gallery in 2002. Since then, the gallery
has become a focal point for the arts at the school.
While many schools
are finding it necessary to eliminate fine arts classes because
of budget concerns, Yosemite High School has added two classes for
the 2004-05 school year (one visual arts class and one instrumental
music class).
Trustees and administrators have a firm commitment to the arts and
the importance the classes have for students. “I feel our students
deserve the very best education we can give them,” says Yosemite
Joint Union High School District Board of Trustees President Priscilla
Pike, “and that must include a vibrant and well functioning fine
arts department. We need to open our academic window as wide as
possible in our student offerings.”
District Superintendent Bill McCabe agrees. “We have to be sure
we offer something for all of our students. The arts give many students
a reason for coming to school and we can’t lose sight of that, even
as we are putting so much emphasis on accountability and testing.”
YHS Principal Steve Raupp is also committed to the fine arts program.
“Visual and performing arts are an important component of a comprehensive
educational experience,” he says. “It is essential for a school
to have a strong fine arts program in order to provide college bound
students with a wide variety of course offerings in order to meet
college entrance requirements, but also to provide a means for all
students to define and value aesthetics and develop an appreciation
for the arts.
“The arts also contribute to the overall academic performance of
students,” the principal says. “We know that research has shown
that students who are engaged in a fine arts program perform better
in the classroom and on standardized tests.”
Pike says, “I feel very badly that so many districts are cutting
back, or removing entirely, their art departments in this day and
age of sending students out into a world with so many choices and
challenges.”
One year of fine arts or one year of foreign language is a graduation
requirement for YHS students. Approximately half of the students
at YHS were enrolled in an art class last year. With a student population
of 1,113, there were 610 students enrolled in a fine arts class.
Fine arts programs offered at YHS include visual art, instrumental
and choral music, and drama.
The district has also built new facilities for the arts. A classroom
building for choir and instrumental music was opened during the
2003-04 school year. The building that formerly housed music and
drama is currently being converted into a performing arts center.
This is a $1.7 million project that is expected to be ready for
use in early 2005. Drama classrooms will also be located in the
center.
There are three teachers in the visual arts department. Rivka Schaffner
teaches visual art full time and Carole Hendrickson will teach two
art classes. Bob Collins teaches two classes that are two periods
each. Courses available to students are Advanced Placement Studio
Art, five classes in Art I and two classes in Art II.
Collins teaches his two classes through the Regional Occupational
Program (ROP). One is International Baccalaureate (IB) ROP Video
and the other is ROP Photography.
Randy Hyatt teaches instrumental music four periods a day and serves
as an assistant principal three periods a day. The instrumental
classes available in 2004-05 will be Beginning Percussion, Percussion,
Concert Band and Wind Ensemble. The Jazz Band meets after school
and at lunch.
Dr. Tony Mowrer is the choral director at YHS. Classes in that department
include Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, History of Rock, International
Baccalaureate (IB) Advanced Music, Choir, and Treble Ensemble.
The school also offers a full drama program under the direction
of Lars Thorson. Classes are IB Advanced Theater, Theater Arts II,
three classes of Theater Arts I, and Stagecraft.
Students will have a total of 26 fine arts classes from which to
choose this year. In addition, a unit in dance is taught through
the physical education program.
Each of the arts programs allows students an opportunity to be involved
in activities outside the school day. The music department puts
on several concerts each year and participates in festivals. The
drama students perform two or three plays each year. The visual
arts students have art shows in the Badger Gallery and the video
and photography students participate in the annual Film Festival.
The Art Club at YHS was instrumental in the creation of the Badger
Gallery in which 10 shows were hung last year. Schaffner says there
is already a line up of shows ready for display the first months
of the Fall 2004 semester.
Another addition to the visual arts department will be the Back
Alley Gallery that will open this fall. It will serve as “a lunchtime
hangout for poets, philosophers and artists,” Schaffner says. The
Art Club designed and installed the gallery as an annex to the Badger
Gallery.
The YHS Chamber Singers have been invited to participate in a national
competition in 2005 after winning a first place and gold medal at
the Anaheim Heritage Festival this spring that featured students
from the United States and Canada. The only ensembles invited are
those who score 92 or more points out of a possible 100 points at
a festival. The Chamber Singers scored 95 points.
The Concert Choir and the Treble Ensemble each earned a silver medal
at Anaheim.
YHS band students also brought home awards from Anaheim. The Concert
Band earned a silver award, the Jazz Band received a bronze award
and the Percussion Ensemble received a bronze award.
Hyatt and Mowrer recently addressed the YJUHSD trustees to tell
them about the music program and to thank them for their commitment
to the arts. Mowrer related a recent experience when he told someone
that he was a music teacher. The person wanted to know where someone
could teach music today and he was able to tell them, “proudly,”
he said, that Yosemite High offers a full fine arts program.
Mowrer told the trustees that there is a 30 percent increase in
the number of students signed up for choir in 2004-05 over the 2003-04
year.
YHS EAST
Environmental and Spatial Technology (EAST) students organize the
annual Oakhurst Regional Film Festival that is held the first weekend
in May at YHS. There are categories for pre-high school, high school
and post high school. This year there were entries from YHS and
Coarsegold Elementary.
In addition to the plays the drama department produced this year,
they also provided noontime entertainment with Lunchbox Theater.
Alternative schools in the YJUHSD also offer a variety of arts,
mostly drawing and painting, says Alternative Education Principal
Roberta Tackett. Students work in charcoal, pastel and colored pencil.
There is also a video and video editing program at Ahwahnee High
and Foothill High.
AHS students learn guitar in their free time, prompting Tackett
to comment that “this shows how important art is in students’ lives;
they seek it out.” She says sometimes students go beyond the assigned
work in their fine arts lessons.
Evergreen High School has a lot of resources to expose students
to the arts, including books from museums and access to all of the
great museums of the world on the Internet.
There is a Film Studies course as an elective for alternative education
students in which they study film techniques by watching classic
movies.
The alternative education students join YHS students twice a year
to go to the opera in Fresno.
“The arts enrich students’ lives,” Tackett says. “It teaches them
another free-time activity and it builds thinking skills.” She notes
that, “art is for everyone, not just those who think they are artistic.”
Pike agrees that the arts help students in all areas of learning.
“Studies have now proven how early and frequent exposure of a child
to music and art truly enlarges their capacity for learning,” she
says.
“In my role on the governing board, I am constantly seeking a balance
in all that we provide at the school,” Pike commented.
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