ROANOKE, Va. – Roanoke already has a vibrant arts community and the addition of a new high school focused on the arts and sciences could make it grow.
Superintendent Verletta White proposed that the district further explore a magnet school option.
“I am going to ask you to dream with me again,” White told board members in presenting a vision for a school devoted to performing arts and sciences that could support 600 to 900 students. “There is no magnet school for the arts in Southwest Virginia.”
She described the option as a “true magnet” school, for which students from across the city would audition.
“We don’t see this as a competing idea but hopefully a complimentary one,” White said. “We know that there are arts and sciences programs already in the city and so we would hope to partner with the various agencies, again to be a compliment to those programs and not competing with them.”
One idea is to transform the current Jefferson Center into a new magnet high school. White added the idea would be for Jefferson Center to continue as a performing arts space for the community. The new school could potentially partner with the current programs so students could work together with professional artists.
The district says a new magnet high school could cost between $20 million and $30 million to renovate an existing building, or between $40 million and $60 million in new construction. The project could take six years.
The arts community is already growing excited for the possibility of a school like this.
Francesca Reilly is the Education Director at Mill Mountain Theatre. She understands the value the arts can have on education in general.
“When it comes to students and the arts specifically, it teaches these students life-long skills. It teaches them how to collaborate. It teaches them how to speak publicly. It teaches them how to do something that’s maybe out of their comfort zone but pushes them in a positive way,” Reilly said.
When told about the news of the magnet school, she expects it to fill a void that’s maybe been missing.
“I’ve noticed that a lot of the high schools and middle schools don’t have established theatre or arts programs at all of them. Having a place where all these students have the ability to go participate in the arts is really exciting,” Reilly said.
The school board is meeting with city council next week during a joint meeting where the magnet school will be discussed.