Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts (DSOA) is a public 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 million by Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr., a West Palm Beach philanthropist.
DSOA is administrated by the School District of Palm Beach County, which also provides most of its funding. The school receives supplementary funds for its arts and academics from the School of the Arts Foundation, Inc.,(SOAFI) a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Designation
DSOA is designated by the School District of Palm Beach County as a "choice" school. The District's Choice programs, formerly known as magnet schools, were part of a plan by the District in the 1980s to desegregate the county's schools without forced busing that would meet Federal requirements to attract white students schools in predominantly African-American neighborhoods. In subsequent years, federal desegregation requirements eased. The programs became career academies under a rebranded "School Choice" program.
Student Body
A total enrollment of 1296 diverse student body with 41% minority enrollment and 16% economically disadvantaged is selected from across Palm Beach County through a process of competitive auditions in one of the six art areas.
Students must reside in Palm Beach County, and show proof of that residence when they enroll and re-enroll each year. The majority of students commute to the school from around the county by District buses, by Tri-Rail to the train station across the street on Tamarind Avenue, and by car. A few students live locally and walk or bike to the campus.
Majors
Students are selected to major in one core art area: Communication Arts, Dance, Digital Media, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts. Music is sub-divided into programs in Concert Band/Jazz, Orchestra, Vocal and Piano. Students are then said to 'major' in their art area, taking at least two art area classes per year in addition to other academic and other classes. They may not switch majors during their time at the school. A limited group can petition to dual major, usually in vocal and theater, although it is infrequent.
National Recognition
Dreyfoos is considered the top public arts and academics school in the country. It has a 100% Advanced Placement (AP) participation rate, and has more Advanced Placement offerings than any other school in the District. It regularly appears on national 'Top High School' lists at U.S. News and Newsweek, among others, as the top school in the nation for both arts and academics since 2005.
Accreditation
The school is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
Campus
The campus is located in downtown West Palm Beach at 501 South Sapodilla Avenue, adjacent to the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and the CityPlace district.
Admissions
All DSOA students are accepted by competitive audition. Most students enter at grade nine, although students in higher grades may apply to DSOA in later years. The audition process takes place on a yearly basis; no mid-year transfers are conducted. Only legal residents of Palm Beach County may audition.
Prospective students must first submit the Choice Programs Application to the School District of Palm Beach County's Department of School Choice and Choice Programs by December of the preceding school year. Auditioning students must then attend an Audition Sign-Up Day to schedule their audition. This typically occurs in mid-to-late January. Audition dates run from late January through early March. Audition results and admission decisions are then mailed to prospective students on a date determined by the school district, typically in mid-April.
Curriculum
Students in their first year at DSOA are given a rounded course selection in their art area. First-year visual arts majors, for example, take a year-long drawing class as well as a semester of sculpture and a semester of either 3-D design or photography. In subsequent years, students are allowed and often encouraged to specialize in an area of the department: Creative writing, graphics, journalism, television, film, or speech and debate for communications majors; technical theatre, acting, or musical theatre for theatre majors; sculpture, painting, photography or printmaking for visual arts majors; ballet or modern for dance majors. The one exception is music, in which a student is given intensive training in their instrument of expertise (or voice) for all four years. Music majors include band, keyboard, orchestra, and vocal.
Training at the school emphasizes professional skills. Students learn through classes, lessons, ensemble rehearsals, and performing.
Visual Arts
According to The College Board's 2007 Report to the Nation, the studio art advanced placement students at The Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts had the highest percentage of students passing the AP exam of any large high school in the world. This is the third time the school's visual art department has received this distinction, having achieved it previously in 2005 and 2006. Dreyfoos student Rebecca Mock was named as one of the 20 national Presidential Scholars in the Arts in 2007. Isabella Pezzulo was also named as a US Presidential Scholar in the Arts (Class of 2014). http://www.youngarts.org/us-presidential-scholars-arts
Communication Arts
The Dreyfoos Speech and Debate team won #1 in the nation at the annual Bickel and Brewer National Policy Forum competition in New York City in 2006 and 2007.
Silver Key, National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, New York City, 2007; Short Film, El Dentista; A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts Communication Students; Ruby Hernandez, Michelle Motter and Christine Valentim
Palm Beach International Film Festival:
1st Place High School Feature/Shorts and Documentaries A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts Communication Students; Nicole Groton, Emily Englehardt, David Kossin, and Sandon Simmons.
1st Place Poster Awards A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts Communication Students; Joseph Gerbino and Alison Schwartz.
1st Place Viral Video Award A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts Visual Arts Student; Grant Yansura.
Audience Choice Award Award A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts Communication Students; Joseph Gerbino, Daniel Satinoff, Errol Sabinano, Joseph Poach, and (G-Star Student) Houston Davis Jones.
The Collaborative Film Productions Club won 1st place in the High School Narrative category at the 2008 Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival for the film "Wednesday".
The TV production team of 2008-2009 won the prestigious NSPA Broadcast Pacemaker award.
The TV Production team of 2009-2010 won a Broadcast Pacemaker Finalist award.
The TV production team of 2010-2011 won the prestigious NSPA Broadcast Pacemaker award
Dance
The Dance Department provides intensive training in different styles and techniques of jazz, ballet, pointe and modern dance. In 2008, out of the 12 men Juilliard School accepted for dance, a remarkable two came from Dreyfoos. In 2010, one male dancer was accepted to become a part of Juilliard class of 2014. In 2011, three dance majors went on to Juilliard School.
Digital Media
This department, a new addition to the school, started in the 2006-2007 school year. The program was created by blending two dynamic programs, Communication Arts and Visual Arts. Students are offered classes in film and digital video, production, photography - traditional and digital, animation and graphic design. Students in this program work with both the moving image and the still image to create narrative experimental, documentary and short films of a variety of genres.
Music
Dreyfoos Music Department was selected as one of the top ten music programs in the country by the NARAS (National Association of Arts and Science) Foundation and was declared a GRAMMY Gold Division School [1]. The music department at Dreyfoos includes Band, Strings, Vocal, and Keyboard majors. The dean of the Music Department is Stephanie Katz-Shear.
Band
The Band Department at Dreyfoos is nationally recognized. Its student-musicians have received thousands of superior awards for solo and ensemble work in district and state competitions. Their students dominate the lists of Palm Beach County all-district honor bands in concert and jazz. Dreyfoos is routinely one of the top five schools with students appearing in the Florida All-State concert and orchestral honor bands.
The first director of the Band program was Randy Sonntag from the inception of the school as the Palm Beach County School of the Arts until 1992. Wayne A. Miller became the Director of Bands and held that role for 18 years, until 2010. Evan Rogovin serves the current Director of Bands
DSOA concert and Jazz bands have toured nationally and internationally, and received dozens of awards from major music festivals in Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Boston, New Orleans, Washington, D.C. and Toronto.
The Jazz Band in 1998 was a finalist in the Essentially Ellington competition. In 2006, their top concert band, the Wind Ensemble, was chosen to represent the State of Florida and performed at the M.E.N.C. National Conference of Music Educators in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2008 the Wind Ensemble was selected to perform in Washington D.C. as part of the Presidential inugeration festivities. In 2012 the school's Jazz Ensemble 1, under the direction of Pedro Hernandez was the winner of the 2012 Jazz and Swing Preservation society's 2012 "Battle of the Bands" which invited high schools across Palm Beach County, Florida to compete.
In 2012, Dryefoos sent the largest amount of students from one school in the state to the FMEA convention to participate in the all state ensembles. In 2013, 24 students were sent, making Dreyfoos the school that sent the 2nd largest number of students (2nd to the Doug Anderson School of the Arts).
DSOA Band and DSOA Jazz musicians are frequent members of regional, state, and national honors ensembles. Routinely they have the largest numbers of students receiving top honors in the Florida Bandmasters Association District 14 All-District honor bands and Solos and Ensembles. DSOA Band students are the largest or second largest group of honorees at the Florida Music Educators Association All-State concert and orchestral bands. DSOA Jazz has been sending two to three students to the 18 member FMEA All-State Jazz Band. Nationally DSOA Band and DSOA Jazz send students to numerous national ensembles including the Student GRAMMY® band, the Jazz Band of America, the Concert Band of America, the Aspen Jazz Institute, and many more.
Theatre
The Dreyfoos Theatre Department received the Educational Theatre Association's Outstanding School Award, Outstanding Student Award, & Hall of Fame Teacher Award (the first time in the 74 year-history of this organization that one school received all three awards). The School's theatre department has also been one of only 10 schools each year selected to perform their Mainstage productions at the Florida State Thespian Competition for the past 4 years. The Florida State Thespian Competition is the largest high school thespian competition in the World.
Past plays include:
2004: Nine Armenians* and Ragtime
2005: Dames at Sea* and Of Mice and Men
2006: Trojan Women* and The Secret Garden
2007: As You Like It* and Ain't Misbehavin'
2008: Our Town* and West Side Story
2009: FAME: The Musical* and 45 Seconds from Broadway
2010: Crazy for You and The Last Night of Ballyhoo
2011: Noises Off and Hairspray
2012: Midsummer* and Metamorphoses
2013: Raisin in the Sun and Guys and Dolls
2014: Lend Me A Tenor and Legally Blonde
2015: The Diary of Anne Frank and Thoroughly Modern Millie
(All Asterisked Plays were Mainstaged at the Florida State Thespian Festival)
- Named an Education Theatre Association Outstanding High School Theatre Program
- Performing on the Mainstage of the Florida State Thespian Festival twelve times in the last fourteen years
- Two-time Winner of the Southeastern Theatre Conference Secondary School Play Competition
- Four-time Winner of the Florida Theatre Conference Secondary School Play Competition
- Most awards for a single school at the District Thespian One-Act Play Competition
- Most awards for a single school at the District Thespian Individual Event Festival
Accolades
The Class of 2010 collectively received over $19 million in scholarship offers.
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 2008, the school's student newsmagazine, The Muse, won the National Scholastic Press Association's prestigious Newspaper Pacemaker award, a recognition of the top student publications in the United States. This is the second time Dreyfoos has won the award, having earned it previously in 2004 to become the first school publication in Florida to do so. The Muse also won fifth place in "Best in Show" at the 2008 Fall Convention of the National Scholastic Press Association, having previously earned eighth place at the 2006 Spring Convention.
The school's literary magazine, Seeds, received the prestigious National Scholastic Press Association Magazine Pacemaker in 2009. Seeds also received fourth place in "Best in Show" at the 2007 Fall Convention of the National Scholastic Press Association.
The school's newscast, "DSOA Today", received fourth place in "Best in Show" at the 2005 Spring Convention of the National Scholastic Press Association.
The school's Theatre Department won the Southeastern Theatre Conference festival with its production of Kindertransport. Numerous other productions have received high ratings at the Florida Theatre Conference and the Florida State Thespian Festival.
Alumni
College Bound
Dreyfoos routinely places students in some of the top programs for both academics and the arts at colleges, universities, and conservatories around the world. Arts-focused graduates attend prestigious programs at The Juilliard School, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Eastman School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, USC Film, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music, and many more. Academic students, particularly with Dreyfoos' exceptional sciences programs, find themselves at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Princeton, Brown University and the top universities across the state of Florida. Dreyfoos students earn
Alumni Accolades
According to the School of the Arts Foundation a partial list of graduates accolades include:
- Creator, Producer, Writer of Memphis Beat on TNT
- Associate Producer of Bring It On: The Musical (2013 Tony Award nominee for "Best Musical"), Legally Blonde the Musical
- Author of young adult trilogy Bad Girls Don't Die and Marie Antoinette Serial Killer
- Actor, William and Kate on Lifetime
- Actress, When Calls the Heart on the Hallmark Channel
- Assistant Costume Designer, Broadway's In the Heights
- Broadway cast members appearing in Wicked, 9 to 5, A Chorus Line, South Pacific, Evita, The Addams Family
- Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera and winner of the 2009 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
- Intern, The White House
- 2011 Miss Florida
- Actor, "Coleman Reese" in Batman: The Dark Knight
- Tuba player in "The President's Own" United States Marine Band
- Contestants, So You Think You Can Dance - Seasons 6 & 7 and winner of Season 9
- Dancer, Martha Graham Dance Company
- Author/Cartoonist of Spaniel Rage and Make Me a Woman
- Vice President, Corporate Derivatives Structuring and Marketing, Goldman Sachs
- Elementary, Middle School and High School Educators
- Named on the Forbes list of "30 under 30" in Finance
- Joshua Harto produced and starred opposite Kristen Bell in The Lifeguard. The film was selected to compete at Sundance in 2013.
History
In the 1980s, a group of arts teachers proposed to the School District that a school of the arts be developed in Palm Beach County. A survey was sent out to gauge community interest in the development of a school of the arts. The community's response was overwhelmingly positive. It was also at this time that the School District was looking to create magnet programs as an alternative to forced integration through involuntary busing.
What began as the Palm Beach County School of the Arts opened in 1990 on the campus of the old North Shore High School, which is today the BAK Middle School of the Arts, in Mangonia Park. It had an enrollment of 250 students in grades 7-9, specializing in five areas of arts study: Communication Arts, Dance, Music, Theatre, and Visual arts. Each year, a new 7th grade class was added until 1994 when the school housed students from grades 7 through 12, and the school graduated its first class.
As the school grew, so did the need for a larger, state of the art facility. Through negotiation and the hard work of the Palm Beach County School Board, the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, and a non-profit group funding the school's additional needs, the School of the Arts Foundation (SOAFI), the Central Schools site in downtown West Palm Beach. The former campus of Twin Lakes High School became the new home of the Palm Beach County School of the Arts.
Twin Lakes was founded in 1908 as Palm Beach High School; it was established one year before the founding of the county itself and is the oldest high school in the county. Originally for whites, Palm Beach High merged in the 1970-1971 school year with the black Roosevelt High School following integration, forming Twin Lakes High School.
Alexander W. Dreyfoos donated the majority funding for the transformation of the campus, making the largest private contribution ever made to a public school in Florida, pledging $1,000,000 to support the Palm Beach County School of the Arts, which was subsequently renamed in his honor, the Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts (DSOA).
The Palm Beach School of the Arts was then divided into two entities: Dreyfoos School of the Arts and the Middle School of the Arts, which later became the BAK Middle School of the Arts serving grades 6-8. MSOA remained on the Mangonia Park campus.
Dreyfoos celebrated the site's 100-Year Celebration with the "100 Years on the Hill" event.
In 2010, Burt Reynolds who graduated from the campus when it was Palm Beach High, returned to the campus for a dedication of the front drive, now used as a pick-up/drop-off for the school as "Burt Reynolds Drive."
References
External links
- Top High Schools, Dreyfoos ranked 20
- America's Best High Schools 2007 Newsweek
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