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'Fame' schools live to perform
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Chelsea Donnelly, 17, of Cape May Courthouse, and Amanda DeSouza, 15, of Margate practice Friday at Charter Tech High School in Somers Point. The popularity of schools similar to the fictional one in the movie ‘Fame’ has grown over the years. Charter Tech taught 125 students in 2001, and enrollment is up to 270 students this year.
Photo by: Anthony Smedile
There were some concerns when Sarah Ciccarelli, of Mays Landing, decided to attend the Charter Tech High School for the Performing Arts in Somers Point.
Ciccarelli, who had been taking voice and piano lessons for years, worried that her ambitions to perform would be undone by a nagging case of stage fright.
Her parents were more concerned that going to a high school focused on the performing arts would limit her future academic choices.
Ron Ciccarelli, Sarah's father, is a musician. He knows firsthand how unsteady and treacherous making a career out of the performing arts can be.
A growing number of parents and students in southern New Jersey are facing these questions each year.
With the release of the movie "Fame" this weekend, the spotlight is on schools like Charter Tech and a similar academy in Ocean County - and both schools are ready for the attention. Enrollment is growing, and students at the schools boast better graduation rates and performance on state tests than the averages for New Jersey.
Ciccarelli is challenging herself academically by taking college prep courses and honors calculus at Charter Tech. Theatrically, she overcame her stage fright after her first performance.
Her parents have no regrets about her not attending Egg Harbor Township High School. Their son, Benjamin, transferred to Charter Tech the year Sarah entered. Benjamin graduated in June and now studies classical piano at William Paterson University in Wayne, Passaic County.
"Charter Tech has been wonderful for Sarah and my son. It has actually brought them around," Ron Ciccarelli said. "It's a way for them to express themselves with their musical goals, and you are not going to get that at the other schools. This is wonderful. She does Christmas shows. She sings for churches, the hospitals, all kinds of things."
When the movie "Fame" debuted in 1980, the idea of a public high school like the New York Academy of Performing Arts that trained students for a career in the entertainment industry seemed novel.
Now, as a remake of the movie returns to theaters this weekend, "Fame" schools have sprung up across the country. There are three in southern New Jersey alone - Charter Tech, the Performing Arts Academy of the Ocean County Vocational Technical School, located in Lakehurst, and the Gloucester County Institute of Technology's Academy of Performing Arts, located in Sewell.
The local schools say that interest and enrollments have been growing in recent years.
Ocean County's Performing Arts Academy, founded eight years ago, graduated 22 students in June. This year, 57 students comprise the freshman class. Charter Tech taught 125 students in 2001. Enrollment at the school grew to 270 students for this year. Charter schools are state-approved public schools that are funded through tuition paid by the school districts in the students' hometowns. There is no charge to the students.
Part of this growth is due to word about the schools getting out to interested students.
But, another reason could be that parents see the schools now have proven academic track records and that the small size of the schools assure their children don't fall through the cracks like they might at a large high school.
The statewide graduation rate is 93 percent, based on 2007-08 data, the most recent available from the New Jersey Department of Education.
Both the Performing Arts Academy and Charter Tech surpassed that percentage. The graduation rates at the Performing Arts Academy and Charter Tech were 100 and 96 percent, respectively.
While Charter Tech and the Performing Arts Academy are both public schools, not everyone who wants to attend necessarily gets in.
At the Performing Arts Academy, students have to take a placement test and go through an audition to win a place at the Academy.
"Students audition for either dance, theater or vocal departments," said Karen Homiek, principal at the Performing Arts Academy for the past five years. "They are provided with direction and expectations for the auditions. Outside judges trained in all three crafts are the decision makers in regards to those students best suited for our program."
The school received 125 applications, but only 57 students made it into the freshman class for this year, according to Jean Sullivan, student services, Ocean County Vocational Technical School. Students not only need good primary school grades to get into the Academy, they must also compete in an admission exam and performance audition to gain acceptance into the school.
The Performing Arts Academy's mission is to provide an academically challenging education for creatively gifted high school students, Homiek said.
Charter Tech, which accepts all applicants, conducts interviews for its two departments of the non-performing arts: TV, film and animation; and information technology. Students who want to study dance, vocal, instrumental music and theater arts must undergo an assessment to gauge their talent in these areas.
"It's hard to get up in front of a group and sing if you can't," said Janice Strigh, the Charter Tech principal for the last six years.
For both schools, training for the performing arts includes training that will help in academic areas as well. Both Charter Tech and the Performing Arts Academy use block scheduling. Their classes last between 80 and 90 minutes. During the course of an academic year, a student takes six academic classes and two performance classes.
Charter Tech's courses strive to help graduates to pursue an arts career, either out front or behind the scenes, or obtain a college degree, Strigh said.
"It's a value to have this type of school for our students," said Strigh, who said one of the school's former dance student now attends Hofstra University and a former theater student attends Wagner College. "With dance, for example, our students have 90 minutes every day. That would be a lot of money at a dance studio."
There are some downsides to attending such small schools.
The Ocean County Academy, for example, is located on the Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Center in the central western part of the county. Students, who are bused to the school from throughout the county, must go through base security each day on their way to school. Forget your student ID and the military police will pull you off the school bus, administrators warn the students.
There are no late buses for students at the academy, so those involved in afterschool activities have to arrange for another way to get home. Parents need a special windshield sticker and photo ID to get onto the military base.
But, in many ways, the performing arts schools are the same as other high schools, with students and administrators facing similar challenges to their counterparts in other schools.
At Charter Tech, administrators are seeking to form an education foundation to raise scholarship money for future graduates to attend college, Strigh said.
"Our plans for the future are to increase our enrollment by 100 students and then eventually add a performing arts center. The charter has to be amended to add more students to the school," said Strigh, who added the administration is in the process of amending the charter.
Jessica Gottlob, of Absecon, may not see any of these changes before she graduates.
Gottlob, 14, is a freshman at Charter Tech. A theatre major, Gottlob already started studying a monologue that she will have to deliver in front of an audience in December. Her monologue is called "Happy Endings."
"I was always into theater... When I heard about it (Charter Tech), I thought it was one of the best things for me," Gottlob said.
Bridget Gottlob, Jessica's mother, said Holy Spirit High School and the Atlantic County Institute of Technology's nursing program were considered for her daughter until the family saw her perform in the lead role in "Annie" in eighth grade.
"I like the school. I like the kids that go there. ... It's a little more artsy, not clique kids," said Bridget Gottlob, who added the school is strong enough academically to get her daughter into college. "It would be interesting to see in the next 10 to 15 years how successful these schools are. Jessica is getting opportunities at Charter Tech that she would not get at another high school."
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Posted in Life on Saturday, September 26, 2009 6:15 am Updated: 6:42 am.
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