Berkeley Leader

Berkeley County School District has some crafty educators.

There are four schools in the district that recently scored a Distinguished Arts Program (or DAP) grant through the South Carolina Department of Education for the 2022-2023 school year.

The Arts Curricular Innovation Grants (or ACIG) assist schools and districts in developing and implementing arts initiatives that support quality arts education programs that significantly improve student achievement in the arts. DAP grants provide funds for one-year projects. Successful DAP applications must indicate that the applicant will include all arts forms – dance, music, theatre, and visual arts – over a three-year period of their strategic arts plan.

All South Carolina K-12 public schools and school districts are eligible to apply for one ACIG type – either an Equitable Arts Advancement Program grant, or a DAP grant. The program had $700,000 to dole out this year; schools could receive up to $18,000 if selected.

Marrington Middle School of the Arts, H.E. Bonner Elementary, Howe Hall AIMS and Philip Simmons Middle all received a 2022-2023 DAP grant.

 

H.E. Bonner Elementary

Arts Instructional Coach Christina Mixon said the grant is for $18,000 and it is going to support a lot of things happening at H.E. Bonner.

“Bonner Elementary School’s mission is ‘Arts Education for ALL,’” Mixon said.

Funding will go toward the school’s mission of “Arts Education for ALL.” This year the funding will provide: West African Drumming residency for second-graders; a school-wide performance by the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble; tickets to see “Aladdin” at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center for fourth-graders; supplies and materials for after-school clubs (dance, drama, art and chorus); travel expenses to send fine arts teachers to their state conferences; travel expenses to get students to the Theater for Youth Festival; and allowing the school to continue to participate in the SCAAP testing – and send the fine arts teachers to Summer Arts Institutes to increase professional development.

 

Howe Hall AIMS

Dance teacher Kim Steele said the school is receiving $7,555 to support its students in the arts.

“Our project, ‘Elevate the Arts’, will enable our students to increase their arts knowledge, skills, and overall student achievement in all four art areas: Dance, Music, Theatre and Visual Art, here at Howe Hall Arts Infused Magnet School,” she said.

The school plans to purchase resources that will be utilized by all students as they are exposed to new artistic techniques and ideas. Students will demonstrate their creativity in all classrooms and content areas, also during our standards-driven arts infusion lessons and later in the year for both informal and formal arts performances, Steele said.

Purchases include lighting equipment, black lights, instrument racks, musical scripts, new harmonicas and a button machine/kit, among other items.

 

Marrington Middle School of the Arts

Chorus/music teacher Melissa Reinheimer said her school will receive a total of $12,600 to bring in professional help to work with students as they grow in the arts.

Funding will go toward a project called “Achieving Excellence Through the Arts”; Reinheimer said the money will assist the school with getting artists in residence services, performing arts teacher training, student supplies and materials, as well as cover student arts activity fees for travel and registrations.

“This will help support a quality arts education that significantly improves student achievement through the arts here at MMSOA,” she said.

 

Philip Simmons Middle

Drama teacher Charles Atkins said this is the sixth year that Philip Simmons Middle has received a DAP grant. For the first three years, the school’s grant was called “Theatre Beyond the Classroom”; the school took every student to two theatre productions at Charleston Stage each school year.

When COVID hit, Atkins said he had to change the focus of the grant.

“My goal for the next grant cycle was to create the best one-act-play classroom script library for our students in the state,” he said.

The title of Philip Simmons Middle’s current grant is called “One-Act-Play Extravaganza,” where $18,000 will be spent with Stage Partners to buy 1,260 classroom scripts – that is 42 different titles at 30 scripts per title.

Original source can be found here.