We did have a strong arts team; it was consistent and members were part of the school for a number of years, without drastic changes. I think it was these particular years where the Administration Team, Arts Team, Student Services Team of counselors, and generally, the school faculty were together without any changes, that were our best years. If memory serves me, I was department head for 13 years. Indeed, there were tensions within the arts department team. At times, it was a challenging environment. I think it did have an effect on the perception of the program. Optics do certainly play a role - right? We needed to promote, promote and promote; throughout the year! It was important to keep our numbers up. We were constantly searching for ways to invite our elementary students in many areas of York Region to attend our activities and events; we were arranging visits to their schools to perform and talk about our program. We tried to publish in local community churches, offer pamphlets, and more. We all understood how important promoting would be, not just at open houses, or at audition time, but always. In addition, with new technology changing the way we deliver curriculum, offer performances, promote on-line, and more, we needed to stay current with our understanding: in education, and in our specific arts discipline. I attempted to encourage our team members to realize that we would all benefit from helping one another in so many areas of the arts. But, this would require more meetings and discussion; research and experimentation; reporting and data collection; discovery and more. We were busy, over-worked in many respects, and simply trying to keep our heads above water.
Many Faculty members felt that our RAP students were expected to be the best, and therefore, these same students would excel in Math, Science; in all other subject areas. These students auditioned and they were to be the leaders of the school. In many cases, most of the students were amazing. They handled themselves in a very respectful manner. I had developed a once-a-month meeting for all RAP students, to gather in the theatre to celebrate and share important news, information. The arts team members did resist this once-a-month meeting, after school. In my view, it worked well for a couple of years. It offered an opportunity to gather and witness a guest speaker.
In order to keep numbers healthy, we did have to accept students into the RAP program that were questionable with marks, audition, and sometimes, even behavior. There was pressure from everywhere to keep the program healthy and growing. It was challenging. I supported giving students a chance. In fact, I think it turned-out well for most of the students we did accept into the program. However, there was risk in offering admission to some students who lacked the passion for school; lacked the passion for their chosen art; and developed into very challenging students to deal with in a RAP program that was always under the microscope.
