The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 126

ill wwwheraldcom Sunday july 2 2000 Diversity shapes music adds color to education Broward arts students well-versed on Broadway: out of class a lot which means they must exercise a lot of time Hall says have to maintain their GPA in order to stay eligible for the Currently a $14 million expansion is under way at Dillard High A 54-classroom addition should be ready by fall and an auditorium recording studio and other structures are on the drawing board Hall said Completion is targeted for 2003-2004 Keston Marin plays trumpet during band director Steve Rivero MARICE COHN BANOHERALD STAFF rehearsal at Hialeah High under I ARTS FROM 1M 155 countries and speaks 150 languages the school system spends $800000 a huge number to most superintendents but a fraction of overall $38 billion budget on tickets to museum exhibitions and live concerts And although the district could not provide firm figures for its overall arts budget which fluctuates yearly based on enrollment it is undoubtedly many times higher Consider: I At Sunset Senior High teens put together a five-minute news show every day in the TV studio I At Howard Doolin Middle in West Dade future Beethovens craft their compositions in a room chockablock with 29 pianos I At Rainbow Park Elementary in Opa-locka fourth graders tippy-tap in front of a wall of mirrors on a dance floor that would be the envy of most professional studios I At South Miami Elementary fifth-graders paint a mural emulating those of Marc Chagall to provide the backdrop for a student production of Fiddler on the Roof But success is ultimately measured by other numbers ones with dollar signs in front of them A couple of years ago Robert Strickland the supervisor for the dramatic arts calculated that $8 million in college scholarships came to students in the arts In one school known for its athletics there were more arts scholarships than sports offerings APPROACH efforts to integrate arts into the daily curriculum is visionary says Richard Bell of Young Audiences a New York-based organization that keeps tabs on eight million students studying the arts in 33 communities across the nation the better part of a generation New York has desperately been trying to accomplish what Dade he says been in the field 25 years and I see more and more evidence of people being more productive and happier in their lives with arts instruction in their Despite their success however programs have had to withstand their own challenges in recent years hard to build increases into an already-tight budget tough to get mew band uniforms and other equipment more than once every seven or eight years and almost impossible to keep things on an even keel when an average of 250 new students pour into the system each day mission is to drive home the point that you must accept the arts as part of your regular says Lilia Garcia head of Dade Division of Life Skills which oversees arts education for the district a monumental task in a district that serves 360202 students making it the fourth-largest school district in the nation And still growing: Predictions are that Dade will get 17000 new students next year many cases their English is awful their reading skills Garcia says first pri- Arts education is available to all 240000 students in the Broward school system Funding for arts education in general is based on a formula calculated per student so administrators are reluctant to provide a specific number because figures fluctuate dramatically INTERNATIONAL MIX Meanwhile students in the SEAS program saw Show Boat Sesame Street Live the Alvin Ailey MOMIX Philadanco Riverdance and Ballet Hispan-ico dance troupes plus 150 other productions this past school year Previous shows have come from Bolivia Brazil China Greece Jamaica Poland South Africa and Turkey Ta-Shana 11 said she had seen at least 17 Should she pursue the arts John Southall the Broward music supervisor has a few words of caution The curricula can become all-consuming and leave little time for anything else in the arts spend more time with each other and their instructor than any other Southall says environment becomes a home away from You also learn humiliation when rejected for a part have friends who plan to study law but already unsatisfied They have no dreams and goals nothing to aspire not just music learning here adds Calvo the pianist and percussionist at Hialeah High essential to life e-mail: gmeadowsher-aldcom AWARDS IN THE ARTS MARICE COHN BANDHERALD STAFF Hialeah High drummer Michelle Calvo tackles the xylophone ority is to give them the skills to survive a chance at And one of the best foundations for success experts say is exposure to the arts a lot of kids being in a band is the first time they recognize that no one else can play that instrument for explains Jeanne Reynolds supervisor of music and theater for the Pinellas County Schools in St Petersburg like a metaphor for society at large all the pieces make up the Business leaders tell her looking for employees who assume responsibility and always remember part of a team the kind of traits developed in band orchestra theater and dance But the connection between arts and success in other endeavors is more than anecdotal A federal study released last year found that exposure to the arts helps build academic skills you give money to the arts you will get high math says Kathleen Gaffney who runs Arts Genesis a private nonprofit educational organization concentrated in New York Connecticut and New Jersey research now is so overwhelming that you would have to be unconscious to ignore Seventeen years ago Gaffney was a budding actress and mother to a healthy baby girl But when her daughter got her measles-mumps-rubella shot it sparked a horrible reaction that left her with what Gaffney calls neurological brain was repatterned through music Gaffney says would never know that anything was The dramatic turn prompted her to refocus her own life into the arts and education the arts could produce a miracle in my she asks could they do for a regular old MOLDING LIVES Except for magnet schools arts are an elective in Miami-Dade schools and students are required to take just one semester of visual art drama dance or music to graduate Many leave school with a much deeper understanding of art than that however Fourteen of 33 high schools have full orchestras jazz bands and marching bands and all 1200 of the arts teachers are certified with degrees in the disciplines actually teaching something that sets Dade apart from the norm before there were fv MIAMI-DADE COUNTY CW GRIFFINHERALD STAFF Above from left Mariana Iriarte Brandon Banks teacher Danny Sell Jorge Alvarez Mike Hernandez and Noel Salcedo work in a TV production class at Sunset High School At bottom left Tasha Sneed practices the violin in her music class at South Miami Elementary BY GAIL MEADOWS gmeadowsherald com This past spring Ta-Shana Rowe a fifth-grader at River-land Elementary became the millionth student to see a stage performance at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts courtesy of the Student Enrichment for the Arts program Created in 1991 by the Broward school system the fifth largest and the performing arts center SEAS regularly turns the smaller of the two theaters (585 seats) into a classroom where students can see the likes of Broadway shows every school day for free send the teachers study guides eight weeks in says Sharon Brooks the SEAS coordinator want the students prepared for a good theater experience Many of them would never in a hundred million years see this kind of stuff We want them to be able to expound on SEAS is funded through interest on a Student Enrichment Fund created 12 years ago after the school system won a court case for being overcharged for milk has allowed us to do great Brooks says DILLARD SETS TONE Arts education is available to all 240000 students in the Broward school system and there are about 4000 students in its magnet talent program At Dillard High School only arts high school magnet approximately 900 of 2400 students receive extensive exposure to drama dance visual art and music have a rigorous performance says David Hall assistant principal for the arts program and its accompanying Emerging Technology magnet And those demands on their time helps students develop other real-world skills about the music and he wants us to be passionate Rivero has the unqualified support of Hialeah Principal Carmen Roses-Maristany When he alerted her that the school system had a way to provide interest-free loans to individual programs she jumped at the chance As a result the band got $50000 for new instruments and equipment It is the only loan obtained by Hialeah High love music and support them Roses-Maristany said LIFE STUDIES In other schools and in other disciplines students thrive just as Deant has though their successes are often overshadowed by the daily turbulence inherent in such a huge district arts are accepted in all reminds Virginia Shuker the dance supervisor who also oversees its magnet talent programs think the easiest way to encourage students to come up with creative solutions to problems develop their critical thinking and self-analysis skills and pave the way to a better Menal Jham 18 a North Miami Beach Senior High debate champion off to Columbia for pre-med school would agree with her In juggling national travels and state competitions learn the importance of time management and taking the she explains learn to communicate ideas argue persuasively Being well-spoken gives us a tremendous Mauricio Salgado 17 who had the lead role in Guys Dolls at Coral Reef Senior High this year also would agree the Renaissance people of our he says of himself and his colleagues in the award-winning theater program surround us TV every day tells us how important the arts are You learn speaking skills history even math as you study music national standards we were doing some of these Strickland says still rank higher than state and national standards in every For Deant and others like her these are the programs molding her life During her sophomore year the short curly-haired teen was so shy she had to be coaxed to stand when it came time for her solos But when she begins her senior year in August be captain of the band never going to put my horn down" she says a joyous feeling to Hialeah Senior High sits at 251 47th St a prominent corner 25 minutes from downtown Miami Open since the early 1950s its demographics have changed as Miami-Dade County has changed Today it has about 3400 students 90 percent of whom are Hispanic Its campus houses 38 portable classrooms some of which are partitioned in order to serve two teachers instead of one The school also has some high-profile supporters In a ceremony last spring County Commissioner Natacha Millan and School Board Chairwoman Perla Tabares Hantman gave the school a $37 million check from the Cultural Affairs Council and Performing Arts Center Trust to turn its auditorium into a performing arts facility Renowned New York theater consultant Josh Dachs and acoustical consultant Russell Johnson will oversee the project Deant lives on Biscayne Boulevard south of Northeast 79th Street miles outside the attendance boundaries Her father she says like the schools near She had attended William Jennings Bryan Elementary and gone to Hialeah Middle without a problem But when it came time for her to enter Hialeah High roadblocks were thrown up everywhere father kept pushing but they denied it four Deant says of school administrators MAKING HIS PLEA Finally her dad appeared before the School Board to make his plea His daughter was thriving in the music program he pleaded Why force her to go elsewhere? Those were the magic words permission was finally granted call it a curriculum says James Smith one of two music education supervisors for the district At Hialeah High Deant is under the tutelage of band director Steve Rivero 31 who takes a military approach to teaching know rehearsals are he says want to waste a single When a visitor arrives the students are already in place ready to perform Michelle Calvo 18 normally plays the drums and cymbals but today at the piano Fernando Nunez the band captain who conducted the marching band on the field has an electric bass under his arm no tittering muttering cutting up Trophies and plaques line one full wall of the immaculate band room Rivero tells us we get a good sound or a good projection with a dirty Deant says In his office Rivero has a portable TV used to show the band videos of themselves and others bookshelves a sofa and plenty of chairs But he keeps the door closed forcing students to knock if they need him He keeps his answers curt The businesslike atmosphere carries over into the classroom there to help the students shine he says but they must behave as if a privilege to be involved Every year they must re-audition to keep their positions Rivero says Says Deant: passionate SCHOOLS BY THE NUMBERS A statistical look at the nation's five largest public school systems: LOS ANGELES COUNTY Miami-Dade County Public Schools win more than their share of national awards especially given the language barriers and cultural difficulties that sometimes can impede achievement A sampling: The Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and Arts Education Partnership in 1998-99 chose the system as one of eight across the nation that are exemplary models of how the arts should be taught in schools The Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network and National School Board Association which generally give several awards annually chose Miami-Dade as its sole 2000 recipient for integrating the arts into classroom experiences Said Derek Gordon the Kennedy vice president for education: Miami-Dade a growing understanding by school leaders across the country that all students can benefit from having the opportunity to study the arts as part of a comprehensive The Alliance for Young Artists and Writers which stages 70 regional art exhibits across the US and Canada yearly bestowed 20 awards the most ever to visual art students in Miami-Dade Affiliated with Scholastic Magazine the Scholastic Art Awards are adjudicated by ajury in New York The works of this national winners went on to the famed Corcoran Gallery in Washington where they'll be on view through July 17 MDI070200 THE HERALD JERE WARREN HERALD STAFF MDI070200.