- Durham School of the Arts (DSA) is a secondary (middle and high) magnet school located in downtown Durham, North Carolina, housing 1,381 students. Its focus is on the visual and performing arts.
- Offerings include 3D and 2D art, dance, guitar, strings, band, piano, acting, technical theatre, and computer classes. Test scores are the best in its school district, and either excel or are on par with the state average. Approximately 200 students are in each grade.
- Students are enrolled by a lottery system and can enroll as early as the sixth grade. DSA now focuses on visual and performing arts. Because of the emphasis on the arts, teachers of all subjects try to incorporate the Arts into their teaching to engage students. The only way to get into DSA is through the school lottery. Students living near the school do not automatically gain enrollment, although many have made it into the school through the official lottery. Most students are admitted in 6th grade, though there are no rules prohibiting entrance after that age, and there is some turnover in other grades. The primary year for turnover is 9th grade, when many students move to other area high schools.
- History
- 1903 to 1995: Durham High School
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Durham School of the Arts is housed in what used to be Durham High School. During racial segregation Durham High School was a high school for whites in the city of Durham. The high school for African Americans was Hillside High School.
- Central High School, located on Morris Street, opened in 1906 and served Durham's white high school students until 1922. This building then was converted to Durham's City Hall and is now the home of the Durham Arts Council (also known as Royall Center for the Arts).
- Durham High School replaced Central High School in 1922 on property that once belonged to Brodie L. Duke. Located next to Durham High School was also the then new Central Junior High School, which opened in 1926. The building was later renamed Julian S. Carr Junior High School in 1945. The junior high closed in 1975 as a new middle school was opened. The Carr building became part of the Durham High School campus.
- By the 1970s Durham High School was no longer a majority white school and had in fact become a majority African American high school along with the traditional African American Hillside High School. Durham High School closed as a traditional high school in 1993.
- 1995 to 2007: Durham School of the Arts
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Durham School of the Arts opened for the first time in 1995 as Durham Magnet Center, a middle school. Every year for four years after a grade was added until the school was grades six through twelve. DSA had its first graduating class in 2000.
- The Laramie Project
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In May 2005, Durham School of the Arts performed The Laramie Project, a controversial play depicting the murder of Mathew Shepard. Ten members of Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church came from Topeka, Kansas to protest the show, the actors, and director, Douglas J. Graves. Although Fred Phelps wasn't present, relatives were including his son, Jonathan Phelps, and his twelve-year-old granddaughter, Grace Phelps-Roger. Phelps did describe the school as "the fag-infested Durham School of the Arts" and said that the Laramie Project was a "propaganda play". Signs held by the group included ones that said "Thank God for Sept. 11.", "The Pope is in Hell", and "God Hates Fags". The Christian group also protested in front of various area churches. However the Westboro Baptist Church did not gain much support and was met by over 200 counter-protesters.
- Past Principals
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Since opening in 1995, Durham School of the Arts has had five principals:
- Ed Forsyth (1995-2003)
- Chris Bennett (2003-2005)
- Lee Vrana
- Dr. Ronald Roukema (2005-2007)
- David Hawks (2007-current)
- Campus
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The campus consists of six semiconnected buildings: the Julian S. Carr Building, the Black Box Theater (formerly the Durham High School auto shop), the Media Center, the Weaver Auditorium, the Main Building, the Gymnasium, and the Science Academy Building (often called the Science or Academy Building), as well as the recently completed "New" Building, housing 8 and 9 grade classes, along with the high school history department. The new building uses the letter "T" in front of its classroom numbers for "Transition" Building (as in 8th-9th grade transition building).
- Julian S. Carr Building
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The Julian S. Carr Building or Carr Building originally housed students at Carr Middle School. The middle school was closed to make way for Durham School of the Arts. Classes in the Carr Building are usually Language Arts or Social Studies as opposed to the Science Academy building which houses more mathematics and science. The Carr building has four stories (including a basement), its own gym and dance rooms. The building was built in the 1920s and is currently showing signs of deteriorating. To help fix the problem, a $194.2 million bond was proposed that will give $15,141,636 towards repairs on the Carr Building. In the 2007- 2008 school year, the third floor and basements were sealed off, leaving just the first and second floors occupied.
- Main Building
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Durham School of the Arts' main building's first floor contains classrooms, the main cafeteria, and the central and guidance offices. The sixth grade classrooms are housed in the basement, seventh grade on the second floor, while many elective classrooms are also scattered throughout the building.
- Black Box Theater
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The Black Box Theater is where all the theater classes are taught. There is a large open space used for theatre shows. The Black Box Theater is two stories high and the home to almost all of Durham School of the Art's theater productions.
- Science-Academy Building
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The Science-Academy Building (or the Academy Building)is a two-story building located behind the main building. Classes taught there are mostly science, and mathematics. The Academy building is on the direct opposite end of the school from the Carr Builidng and is located right next to the bus parking lot.
- Weaver Auditorium
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The Weaver Auditorium is a building used for speeches, presentations, and open houses. The Weaver Auditorium has 1600 seats.
- Gymnasium
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Although there is a gymnasium in the Carr Building, Durham School of the Arts has a semiconnected building as a gymnasium. This building has three stories, including a basement, the basketball courts, coach offices and changing areas, and one for audience seating.
- "New" Building
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As part of the Durham Public School System 2003 Bond Project. $6,759,600 was donated for the construction of a new building that has not yet been named. Construction for the building began in September 2007 and was completed in February 2008. The new building is 30,968 square feet. Now that construction is complete, many classes have moved there from the Carr Building to make room for the construction currently planned for the Julian S. Carr Building
- Other
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Besides Durham School of the Arts's main building there are several other points of interest at the school. In DSA's garden, called the Big Hearted Garden, there is a memorial in honor of three students, Aaron Morgan and Jonathan Henderson, who died in 2005 and 2006 of heart ailments, and Bennie Vanhook, who was shot and killed in December 2006. Morgan was fifteen years old, Henderson fourteen, and Vanhook seventeen.
[Min, Shirley, (May 3, 2007) " Garden Memorializes Students," NBC17 Retrieved on May 21, 2007.][The Durham News, (May 12, 2007) " Week in review," The Durham News Retrieved on July 9, 2007.] There are also two parking lots, one for cars in front of the Main Building and one for buses next to the Academy Building. - Classes
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DSA along with Josephine Clement Early College High School are the only high schools in the DPS system that haven't switched to a block schedule as of the 2007-2008 school year. This means that while other high schools offer eight classes a year, four per semester, DSA offers seven yearlong classes, along with semester-long classes for middle school and a limited selection for high school.
[Lewis, Julia (October 4, 2004) " Durham Schools To Make Switch To Block Scheduling" WRAL Retrieved on July 9, 2007.] - Unlike many other schools in the area, DSA follows the integrated math system, consisting of Integrated Algebra and Geometry (IAG) I through III, as well as IAG IV Social and Quantitative. IAG IV Quantitative (IAG IV Q) is pre-calculus.
- In February 2007, DSA was named and recognized as a national School of Excellence due to their curriculum, diversity, and high standards.
[Staff Reports (February 27, 2007) " 3 magnet schools win accolades" The News and Observer Retrieved on July 9, 2007.] - Middle School
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At DSA 6th and 7th graders are divided into 'teams.' In sixth grade you are either a 'Knight', or a 'Dragon'. Both teams have their own spaces in the basement. These areas contain all of a teams' core classes-mathematics, language arts, social studies and science, along with the lockers of the members of the teams. They are separated by a hallway.
- In 7th grade, interteam communication is encouraged. The two teams, the 'Navigators' and the 'Explorers,' are both on the 2nd floor of the main building. No physical boundary separates the areas, but students are not allowed to go onto the other team's hallway during their core class hours--1st period through 4th period.
- Eighth graders are allowed freedom similar to that of high schoolers and are not divided into teams. They have lunch with and take electives with high schoolers, unlike the 6th and 7th graders who eat lunches with their classes. They also take P.E. as a semester long class, rather than a year long class alternated with a study hall period.
- High School
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High schoolers have the option of taking Advanced Placement (AP) courses. These include AP English IV (Literature and Composition), AP Statistics, AP Chemistry, AP Calculus AB, AP US History, AP European History, AP English III, AP Biology, AP Physics, and AP Psychology. They are also offered the opportunity to take Independent Study classes to study subjects not offered there.
- In 2007, DSA's high school was ranked as the 346th best high school in America by Newsweek, making it the 22nd best school in North Carolina according to Newsweek.
[Newsweek " 4 DPS high schools named to Newsweek Top 1,200 list Retrieved on August 3, 2007.][Newsweek " The Top of the Class Retrieved on August 3, 2007.] - External links
- Official website
- School report card
- Source: Wikipedia; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.
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