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62 °F Forecast | Road Cams Saturday, September 18, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend September 3, 2004 From left, Eagle Point High School Spanish teacher Darcy Rogers, Principal Mary Brabbin, and language arts teachers Jay Schroder and Steve Colombo celebrate following news of a half-million dollar grant to start an arts magnet school. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Grant helps create arts school The Eagle Point High magnet will school about 10 percent of students in an arts-oriented curriculum By JOHN DARLING for the Mail Tribune Abuzz with excitement over winning a $500,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Eagle Point High School has set to work shaping a new arts magnet school to immerse about 10 percent of its students in the arts — and to put an arts spin on the basic curriculum as well. "We’re still in shock — absolutely elated," said Eagle Point High Principal Mary Brabbin, noting that the school won the highest dollar amount in the state and was among four of 13 applicants chosen under the Oregon Small Schools Initiative (OSSI) program. Brabbin and a core of five arts, English and Spanish teachers now begin a year-long process of planning curriculum, developing staff, inviting community involvement and signing up about 125 students for the visionary new school, which will be housed in the surviving nine-room wing of the old junior high that burned two years ago. The "theme-based" program, being promoted statewide with $25 million by the private, nonprofit Oregon Small School Initiative, was awarded based on the school’s existing Eagle Institute for the Performing Arts, its participation in the El Teatro Latino theater company, the area’s low socio-economic status and its work toward a thriving bicultural educational community, said Eagle Point High language arts teacher Jay Schroder, the "prime mover" in the new school vision. "We got the grant because we had a large, compelling vision and the energy, enthusiasm and support of students, staff and community to carry it out," said Schroder. "We had to prove we could design a school that sparks student interest and fosters a passion for the arts, while maintaining high academic standards." Advertisement Pointing to a "higher-than-average Latino dropout rate" at Eagle Point High, Spanish teacher Darcy Rogers said the new school will feature a Latino theater and be designed to attract Latinos into an experience that will engage them academically, lay a foundation of successful ethnic diversity and move them on to college. Visual arts teacher Steve Colombo said the new school will be open to students of every grade-point level and should appeal to those with a passion for arts who may be "struggling in a regular school setting." Colombo said the school "will break the line traditionally separating arts from academics and put them on an equal footing, promoting risk-taking, out-of-box thinking and working in a safe environment, where it’s OK to stumble, learn from it and grow." Brabbin said the El Teatro and Eagle Institute students helped win the grant by performing for OSSI staff in Portland. The grant was secured, she added, by teachers Schroder, Rogers, Colombo, Nick Baker and Buzz London, who are "teachers, visionaries and shakers who never miss a teachable moment." The grant comes as a "dream come true" for Eagle Point High School, which over the past three years has lost many programs, hours and a third of its staff with failed statewide school support ballot measures, said Schroder, noting the Gates Foundation "will do what it takes to ensure success, following up with consultants, materials, staff development, training and school staff visits to functioning arts magnet schools." Eagle Point High junior and writer Maria Orozzo called the news "awesome" and said, "It will give me a much wider opportunity to develop as an actress, director and playwright" beyond the bounds of regular high school classes, which she termed, "not that bad, not that good, just in between." Added Orozzo, "It’s amazing someone did this for Eagle Point, because little towns are mostly overlooked and ignored." With ready access to a usable building, most of the grant will pay for curriculum development, staff and class spaces, said Brabbin. Class sizes will be small and students may attend some core classes at the high school, a quarter-mile away. However, both arts and core classes, even such disciplines as chemistry and economics, will be taught with an orientation to the arts, she added. Before its September 2005 opening, the new, yet-to-be-named, school will consult area arts groups, including Jeff Tabler of the Oregon Conservatory of the Performing Arts and Juan Rivera of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The new school will take about 125 of the high school’s 1,300 students, hoping to expand it to 400 over the next five years, without in any way reducing the quality or mission of the high school, Brabbin said. "The vision (of the new school) is to create a universal appeal," said Brabbin. "With the low socio-economic status here, arts seemed to be the thing we all had in common, no matter what our status. "We all enjoy the arts. It joined us together, instead of separating us further apart." John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. 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