Arts Council Napa Valley has recognized 17 students for excellence in the arts for April and May, the final two months of the Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) Recognition Program.
All 60 students honored with the ACNV VAPA Student of the Month award during the 2020/21 school year are now being considered for scholarships to be announced the first week of June. The scholarship program is supported by The Festival Napa Valley, Napa Valley Community Foundation, the SATO Family Foundation and individual donors.
April/May recipients include nine high schools and eight middle/elementary Visual and Performing arts students from 11 different schools. ACNV Executive Director Chris DeNatale said, We are so proud of these students who persevere inspiring their teachers and their peers.
To the NVUSD board: I am very proud to have served on the districtâs Board of Trustees from 1992 to 1996. During my term, the district accomplished a number of important initiatives: hiring Dr. David Brown as school superintendent; passage of the first successful school bond in many years; the beginning of the American Canyon Middle School; the planning for and the opening of New Tech High School (I was pleased to serve as the boardâs liaison to that effort); and the opening of the River School as NVUSDâs first charter school.
The decision to open the River School was the result of a lengthy process that thoroughly analyzed the benefits and disadvantages of forming a new middle school with a fundamentally different approach to education and doing so within the structure of a charter school. As a result of that process, River School was ultimately offered a home at the newly opened Harvest Middle School at the old Ridgeview site.
Arts Council Napa Valley has recognized six students for excellence in the arts for February, four in the categories of instrumental music and choir and two in visual arts students. âThis is encouraging news considering the restrictions facing music education during COVID-19, making it challenging to play instruments or sing together in person,â the Arts Councilâs announcement read.
In March, all instrumental and choir students will be allowed to practice outside with precautions in place.
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ACNV executive director, Chris DeNatale, said, âItâs been a long, painful year for our young artists and teachers. We are grateful to the Napa County Health Department that has set out specific guidelines to keep us safe while allowing our students to play and sing together again. We look forward to seeing musical productions return this spring.â
As a task force of schoolteachers, parents and others ponders closing one of Napaâs middle schools amid falling attendance and state funding, a survey of campuses illustrates sometimes sharp differences in their demographics and communities â including for the junior high school briefly targeted for a possible shutdown last fall.
While the Napa Valley Unified School District has an overall glut of hundreds of student spaces, it also faces an imbalance between its recently rebuilt â but difficult to expand â River Middle School in the north, and three-decades-old campuses serving largely lower-income and minority families elsewhere in Napa, according to a study shared with NVUSDâs Middle School Redesign Task Force last week.
Register Staff
Despite the challenges of the pandemic shut-downs, Napa Valley students have continued to create art. Arts Council Napa Valley (ACNV) began 2021 by recognizing 11 students from Calistoga to American Canyon for excellence in the arts.
Each student was singled out by their teacher for âgoing beyond,â âalways showing up,â and most importantly, âinspiring others.â
ACNV judges agreed two studio art students at the high school and middle/elementary levels were deserving of honor, resulting in two ties in that category. Other students were recognized for excellence in choir, theater, digital media, instrumental music and dance.
Here are Februaryâs Student of the Month winners: