Howell High School, home to the Freehold Regional High School District Fine and Performing Arts Academy, has been named a model school for arts education as part of the New Jersey Model Schools in the Arts Project. Only 12 other high schools in the state received this honor, according to a press release.
The New Jersey Model Schools in the Arts Project was formed through a partnership of the New Jersey Department of Education, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the New Jersey Arts Education Partnership. The goal of the project is to analyze the elements of a model arts education program, determine the attributes shared by model schools, and provide mentoring to schools looking to improve their arts education program.
“The arts are an integral component of every student’s comprehensive education,” said Zina Duerbig, principal of Howell High School. “We are fortunate at Howell High School to have the support of our Board of Education and superintendent to do all that we do here to make that vision a reality.”
A formal awards ceremony for the schools that received this award will take place this fall.
“All involved felt privileged to be part of this groundbreaking study to capture what attributes are shared by schools with model arts education programs,” said Kristin Wenger, director of the New Jersey Arts Education Partnership. “The information gathered will provide essential information to be shared with schools around the state.”
Approximately 30 percent of the 2,500 students at Howell High School enroll in its fine art, applied art, band, chorus, pop music history, music theory, drama and advanced drama classes. Another 10 percent of the school’s students enroll in the arts-related classes — video communication, fashion design, interior design and computer graphics/digital photography.
And yet another 10 percent of students, who are selected through an intensive audition/ interview process, take a four-year sequence of intensive arts classes in acting, dance, music technology or video technology in the school’s magnet Fine and Performing Arts Academy.
Supporting the school’s arts curriculum are 12 full-time and six part-time arts teachers. Howell High School boasts a newly refurbished auditorium, a chorus room, ample choir and band rehearsal areas, three large art studios, dance studios, an acting studio, a recording studio and a video studio, according to the press release.