Art Schools

CSArts-SGV Welcomes its First Group of Incoming Students

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 19 August 2017 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, and Monrovia Weekly

August 14, 2017 marks a milestone for the Duarte Unified School District (DUSD) when CSArts-SGV officially opens its doors to admit the first group of incoming students to the Art School. A welcome festival on August18 will celebrate this much anticipated event.  

An off-shoot of the Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA), CSArts-SGV offers high caliber academic and arts education for students in grade seven through eleven for the 2017-2018 school year, and will expand to twelfth grade the following school year. It was established in 2016 by the California School of the Arts Foundation, a non-profit organization modeled after the nationally recognized OCSA.

CSArts-SGV students have ten arts conservatories to choose from including acting, classical & contemporary dance, classical voice, commercial dance, creative writing, instrumental music, integrated arts, musical theatre, production & design, and visual arts.  

“For years I’ve dreamed of serving more students who have a passion for the arts,” declares     Dr. Ralph Opacic, founder and executive director of the OCSA and chief executive officer of California School of the Arts. “Our partnership with DUSD has created an opportunity to provide the San Gabriel Valley and surrounding communities with the same quality academic and arts instruction, unique school culture, and unparalleled value that we have established at OCSA over the past 30 years. We not only train talented students in their respective art forms, we also produce highly engaged, creative students who succeed in top-ranking colleges and in careers of their choice. Our students go on to become Broadway stars, musicians and artists, as well as engineers, doctors, and entrepreneurs.”           

Image taken from CSArts-SGV website

According to Janelle Kruly, director of public relations and communications, approximately 695 students have enrolled but they are still accepting applications on a rolling basis. An estimated 66 percent of incoming students are from San Gabriel Valley, with the rest from Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Fresno counties.  

There is much in store for the upcoming school year including: the all-school musical – the Tony award-winning ‘Pippin’ to be held at Azusa Pacific University in November; a cross-disciplinary Master Artist Series which brings nationally renowned guest artists and master teachers to provide extraordinary learning opportunities for students; through a partnership with Descanso Gardens, students will have performance opportunities at the lauded ‘Enchanted: Forest of Light.’     

Three students – Asia Aragon, Victoria Camacho, and Braden Maniago – share their thoughts about their desire to be attending the new arts school.  

Fifteen-year-old Aragon, who will be attending the commercial dance conservatory, is transferring from La Salle High School in Pasadena where she was a sophomore. She had been involved in La Salle’s Arts program. At the same time, she was a junior varsity golfer and swimmer.

Aragon heard about CSArts-SGV from a friend, went to the open house, and decided to apply.  She relates, “I liked seeing the different types of arts and how all the students were excited to be having a school dedicated to the various art fields. I’ve been dancing since I was six years old – I go to the Pasadena Civic Ballet. I’ve been in many performances for them.”

Image of Asia Aragon as ‘Binibining Pilipinas’ taken from Facebook

In fact, Aragon’s resume reads like a professional’s. She has appeared in national commercials, music videos, short films and theatre productions, and has recorded voiceovers. She played the lead role of Kim in ‘Stealth’, an award-winning short play from the American Film Institute.  Her film credits include: ‘Willy Wonka: The Musical (as Violet Beauregarde); ‘Aladdin Jr’ (as Princess Jasmine); ‘Annie’ (once as Annie and twice as Pepper); ‘White Christmas’ (as Susan Waverly); ‘South Pacific’ (as Ngana); ‘The Big Bad Musical’ (as Sidney Grimm); and ‘The Doll’ (as Monica). 

An alumna of the Broadway Artists Alliance in New York City, Aragon was nominated for the 2015-2016 National Youth Arts (Junior Division) Lead Actress Award for her portrayal of Jasmine in ‘Aladdin Jr’.

Aragon has modeled as the American Girl doll Ivy Ling for the American Girl/Flintridge Guild Fashion Shows for five years. She also holds the title of Miss Century City Teen USA 2017 and will compete in the Miss California Teen USA Pageant.

Says Aragon, “I hope CSArts-SGV helps me thrive and challenge me in my dance career and journey as well as prepare me for college. I plan on pursuing a degree in the Arts and am looking forward to possibly attending Juilliard, NYU, UCLA or USC.”

Victoria Camacho is a twelve-year-old and rising eighth grader. Coming from Northview Intermediate in Duarte, she was aware that her former school was going to be replaced by CSArts-SGV. 

“I have always been interested in visual art but I don’t currently get any formal training – I just teach myself by constantly drawing on my sketchbook,” Camacho discloses. “I would really love to be doing this as a future career so I went online to learn more about the OCSA and CSArts-SGV and decided to audition.”

Braden Maniago and Victoria Camacho | Courtesy Photo

The audition for the visual art involved drawing three different things. Camacho relates, “There were about 20 girls who auditioned with me; we were seated at two large tables with several objects on them.  Our first task was to draw our hand. The second was to pick one of the articles on the table to draw; I chose a seashell. The third took the longest because we were asked to select three items, place them together, and draw them. The first two tasks took about 20 minutes each while the last one took between 30 to 40 minutes.”

“I found out at the end of February/early March that I had been accepted and I was so excited!,” Camacho enthuses. “This is a huge opportunity. For the next five years I get to attend a regular school during the day and go to the visual arts conservatory in the afternoon. After high school I am thinking of going to college to get a Bachelor of Arts degree.”

Camacho adds, “I enjoy sketching because I get to express my feelings through art. I would really like to be an animator in the future.”  

An avid reader, Camacho prefers mysteries and thrillers. She frequents bookstores where she picks up New York Times bestsellers. One of her favorite reads was Marieke Nijkamp’s YA fiction, ‘This is Where it Ends’.                   

Braden Maniago is a home-schooled 14-year-old from Arcadia, a rising ninth-grader. He states, “I have been acting for several years so I’m home-schooled through K-12 to give me more time for acting and dancing classes. However, it could also be boring studying alone at home so I’m happy to be going to CSArts-SGV. I can practice reading scripts and interact with another actor.  This gives me the structure that I don’t have right now.”

“I’m passionate about acting and I’ve always thought I’m meant for it, which is why I want to go to CSArts-SGV ” adds Maniago. “My parents are very supportive of what I do. My mom was actually the one who told me about the new school. Both my mom and dad went with me to the Open House.”

It was meeting Robin Williams while working as a background actor on a show that inspired Maniago to pursue acting and studying for it. He relates, “I didn’t know who he was at the time but I remember him telling me that it’s hard for aspiring actors to break into Hollywood. I also realize that the challenge increases exponentially for Asians. I want to be the first Asian to be cast in a role that’s not particularly for an Asian; I really want to change the industry.”

For Aragon, Camacho, and Maniago, being recognized for their talent without qualifying their specific ethnicity – to be acknowledged despite being of a different race, not because of it –  would be a giant leap in the right direction for the Arts. For them, CSArts-SGV will pave the way for that future.                           

Orange County School of the Arts Expands to the San Gabriel Valley

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 13 October 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

Duarte Unified School District’s (DUSD) commitment to arts programs will have its most tangible proof yet when the California School of the Arts-San Gabriel Valley (CSArts-SGV) opens its doors next year as a public charter school of the DUSD, operating from the current Northview Intermediate School campus. The first sister school to the Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA) in Santa Ana, CSArts-SGV is a partnership that is expected to benefit children in Duarte and the surrounding region.

“The choice of housing CSArts-SGV at Northview was based on the interest of our community to support the concept of neighborhood schools,” declares DUSD superintendent, Dr. Allan Mucerino. “In addition, we identified grades 7-8 as the point in time when 70% of our students of residence who transferred out of our district exited DUSD. As a result, we chose to reconfigure from K-6 to K-8 schools. That provided us the opportunity to repurpose Northview by entering into a license agreement with OCSA to create CSArts-SGV.”

This grade level reconfiguration will also necessitate a bit of relocation for current students.  Mucerino explains, “Starting in the 2017-2018 school year current sixth graders will remain on their present campus for seventh grade. Current 7th grade students will be housed in a satellite 8th grade facility between the existing Northview campus and Duarte High School for one year. In 2018-2019, the conversion to K-8 will be complete.”            

Dr. Ralph Opacic, who founded OCSA in 1987, explains the decision to expand to the San Gabriel Valley. “The OCSA is celebrating its 30th anniversary and we are now at capacity at 2,200 students. We attract 3,000 applicants each year for 400 spots from cities not only in Orange County, but also from adjacent Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego counties. And so we began looking at areas where our program will have an appeal. The San Gabriel Valley quickly came to our attention as we know it will draw from the entire region. We’re likewise having conversations with school districts in the South Bay, at El Segundo, and the San Fernando Valley.”

“This is the first sister school of OCSA and is modeled after it,” continues Opacic. “Our goal is in ten years to be able to provide 10,000 kids who are passionate for the arts with a transformational experience. We want to offer a culture where they are surrounded by like-minded students; to afford them an academic preparation combined with an arts curriculum so they can continue on a path. But it isn’t a program to educate talented students to become future artists. Rather, it’s an innovative school environment that graduates highly engaged, creative young leaders who are well-equipped for meaningful, successful lives at the college of their choice and in any career they select. ”

Opacic describes, “Students will have the academic portion of their day from 8 am to 2 pm consisting of three 90-minute classes and a 30-minute tutorial block. CSArts-SGV will offer college preparatory, honors and advanced placement courses taught by fully credentialed faculty members, with the majority of them holding advanced degrees.

Image taken from CSArts-SGV website

Then high school arts students will be attending their choice of art course from 2:30 to 5 pm.  Conservatory for students in the 7th and 8th grade is scheduled prior to the high school conservatory. We’ll be offering ten arts classes – acting, classical and contemporary dance, classical voice, commercial dance, creative writing, instrumental music, integrated arts, musical theatre, production and design, and visual arts.”     

The opening of CSArts-SGV will bring in more jobs into the city. Opacic reveals, “We currently have job postings for the eight full-time arts teachers and will be interviewing within the next four to six weeks. We will be hiring academic and arts instructors after March 1st next year when we have an idea of what our enrollment will be. We hope to open grades seven to ten at 200 students per grade level. We staff our academic programs at 30:1 so we’ll probably have 20 – 27 academic educators and we staff the arts programs at 20:1 and we’ll probably have 40 arts teachers in the afternoon conservatory.”

According to Mucerino, the presence of CSArts-SGV in Duarte will infuse additional funding.  He says of the amount of Average Daily Attendance (ADA) revenue generated by 1,200 students in grades 9-12, three percent will go towards DUSD.       

Opacic will serve as the executive director of the California School of the Arts, which is the umbrella company for all schools they open going forward. As a charter school, CSArts-SGV will have its own board of directors, independent of Duarte Unified School District (DUSD), which is its sponsoring agency.

CSArts-SGV’s first principal will be Dr. William Wallace, who was Dean of Facilities and Supervision at OCSA, where he oversaw the expansion of the school from 1,800 students to its current size of nearly 2,200. He also assisted in supervising the construction of OCSA’s premier dance, music and science building, which was inaugurated in August of 2015; he also served as OCSA’s Assistant Principal of Student Services.

Image taken from CSArts-SGV website

Abbe Levine will come on board as the Dean of Arts Conservatories, having served as Director of Arts Environment and Program Expansion at OCSA. She has been teaching at OCSA since 2004 until she became Co-Director of the Creative Writing Conservatory. In that post she implemented innovative community programming and collaborative arts projects.

Mucerino has been an ardent supporter of arts programs and this partnership is the culmination of his months-long search for a genuine alliance. He says, “OCSA has created the blueprint for an innovative school that has proven that arts and creative educational experiences transform schools and communities. The evidence is powerful: children of all social and economic levels who experience high levels of art engagement have more positive outcomes in virtually every achievement indicator, compared to students who are not as lucky. Creative thinking and innovation are at the core of advancement in today’s globalized world. This unique public school/charter school partnership is an example of how historically polarized forces can work together to challenge the status quo and create exceptional and flourishing learning environments.

Over 1,000 people have already signed up for the first preview day on October 22. Judging from that level of interest, it’s going to be as popular as the original Orange County School of the Arts.  But what’s truly unique about this partnership is that it includes an opportunity for students in grades seven and eight to attend DUSD K-8 schools to prepare for CSArts-SGV by participating in the same conservatory program currently delivered to 7th and 8th graders in OCSA. The conservatory for 7th to 8th grade students will be on the CSArts-SGV campus in the same facility used for the 9-12 conservatory program and taught by the same instructors.”         

Students in Duarte and in the entire San Gabriel Valley are the fortunate recipients of education leaders’ out-of-the-box approach to teaching. Mucerino says it best when he quips, “There’s never been a better time to be a kid in Duarte.”