BACK TO SCHOOL : HUNTINGTON BEACH : GWC Offers Arts Classes to Fill Gap at High Schools

As spending cuts in Sacramento have prompted local school districts to shrink or eliminate elective classes, many high schools have been left with the skeletal remains of once burgeoning arts programs.

To help restore what has been lost from those programs--and then some--Golden West College this fall is offering an array of art, dance, music and theater classes for high school students.

The college’s Academy of the Arts program, introduced in January as a joint endeavor with the Huntington Beach Union High School District, this semester is expanding to attract high school students from throughout Orange County.

“We want to give those kids who are really interested in the arts opportunities that we can no longer give at the high school level,” said Steve Schwartz, the high school district’s fine arts coordinator who originated the program. Schwartz coordinates the Academy of the Arts along with John Wordes, Golden West’s associate dean of business and arts.

In addition to program reductions, high school students interested in the arts have had limited opportunities to pursue them because the state’s increasing requirements for math, English and other core academic subjects have squeezed out many elective openings, officials said.

Students and program coordinators say the courses not only compensate for slashed school programs but offer high school students a chance to learn the arts in a more intimate and professional atmosphere.

Last semester, 53 students attended three classes given through the Academy of the Arts program. The cost is $10 per class, and students receive college credit for courses taken, Wordes said.

This fall, the college is offering six classes, and Wordes said he expects between 85 and 100 students will attend.

“Nothing like this is offered in high school,” said Penelope Pauley, who enrolled in the program’s acting class last semester and performed in the summer musical “Grease.” “There are too many (students) and not enough concern.”

Pauley said that, as a Marina High School senior last spring, she had been frustrated by the school’s limited training and facilities. For example, there is only one theater among the district’s six schools.

“It’s obvious that there is not as much allocation of funds (for the arts) as there should be. . . . And it’s not just theater. The band and choir suffer, too. We all lose out.”