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'Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr. School of the Arts' (DSOA) is a public arts magnet high school located in West Palm Beach, Florida. Formerly named the Palm Beach County School of the Arts (also known as School of the Arts or SOA), the school was renamed in recognition of a 1997 donation of $1,000,000 by West Palm Beach philanthropist Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr.
The school draws talented students from across Palm Beach County into one of its five art departments: Communications, Dance, Music, Theater, and Visual Art. Students are said to "major" in their art area, taking at least two art area classes per year. In addition, students complete the normal public school curriculum of math, science, English, history/social science, foreign language, health, and gym.
The School was named the 18th best High School in the Nation by Newsweek Magazine in May of 2007 and has been consistently ranked in the top 50 best High Schools for the past 5 years.

Contents

Audition process

Curriculum

Alumni and accolades

Location

History

Funding

See also

External links

Audition process

Students audition for placement in the School of the Arts from January through March. The audition process is coordinated by each of the individual departments, after which the administration makes an overall assement of a prospective student's academic and behavioral record. Auditions rigorously test the student's artistic aptitude on a college level. Dreyfoos accepts a limited number of students in each art area. Students are encouraged to apply for placement in 9th and tenth grades; enrollment is generally more difficult, as competition can be high. Acceptance, rejection, and waitlist letters are then mailed to applicants in April. Students applying for the 2007 - 2008 school year received their acceptance, denial, and waitlist letters during the weeks of April 9th and April 16th.
Prospective applicants and their parents should contact the Palm Beach County School District [1].

Curriculum

Students in their first year at DSOA are given a fairly rounded course selection in their art area. Visual Arts majors, for example, take a year long drawing class as well as a semester of sculpture, and a semester of 2-D design. A few students are able to take photography. In subsequent years, students are allowed, and often encouraged to specialize in an area of the department; Communications majors may work in creative writing, graphics, journalism, television, film, or speech and debate. Theater majors may focus primarily on technical theater, acting, or musical theater. Visual majors may concentrate on sculpture, painting, photography or printmaking. Dance majors train in a style such as ballet or modern. The one exception is music, in which a student is given intensive training in their instrument of expertise (or voice) for the duration of their high school career. Music departments include band, keyboard, orchestra, and vocal.

Alumni and accolades

Graduates attend a The school also has students at a number of top tier academic universities around the nation, such as Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Emory University, College of William and Mary, Columbia University, Cooper Union, Bard College, Cornell University, Georgetown, Harvard, MIT, New York University, Tufts University, the University of Southern California, Yale, and Princeton. The school earned the highest number of passing grades (3,4, or 5) on the Advanced Placement Arts tests out of any school worldwide for the 2003-2004 school year.
The Dreyfoos School of the Arts Debate team won the prestigious National Public Policy Forum for the second year in a row in 2007. It is not only the first school to win the New York University/Bickel and Brewer Law Firm competition in consecutive years, but is the first public high school to win the competition in its history. In 2005, the ''Muse'', Dreyfoos' student newsmagazine, became the first school in Florida to win the National Scholastic Press Association's prestigious Pacemaker award, a recognition of the top ten student publications in the United States.

Location

The Dreyfoos School of the Arts campus is located in downtown West Palm Beach on Sapodilla Avenue, adjacent to the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts [2], and the outdoor mall Cityplace. Located across Tamarind Avenue is the Tri-Rail train station, which makes commuting for the students in the southern portion of the county fairly easy.

History

The school was previously named the Palm Beach County School of the Arts from its opening in August of 1990 until the opening of the new campus for the 1997-'98 school year. The original campus was the old North Shore High School campus in Mangonia Park, a neighborhood north of West Palm Beach.

Funding

Under the direction of School Board superintendent Arthur C. Johnson, specialty programs in Palm Beach County schools, including magnet schools and extracurricular programs, have been experiencing budget cuts. DSOA, which has a large yearly budget for purchasing art supplies and hiring experienced faculty, has been deeply affected by Johnson's fiscal policy. The School has survived the last several years through the donations of local philanthropists and careful financial management by the School of the Arts Foundation.

See also

★ Bak Middle School of the Arts

★ Suncoast Community High School Public Math and Science Magnet in Palm Beach County

External links

★ School of the Arts Foundation, Inc.

★ Unofficial, Informational Web Site

★ Top High Schools, Dreyfoos ranked 20