New Haven will begin a transition to add high schoolers to the Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School when it welcomes its first freshmen class next year.
Walking the halls of Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School, Principal Jennifer Jenkins said she’s ready for a change.
Next year, the school will have its first ninth grade class, who will get to focus on arts and design for animation and special effects, and performance art and art technology side.
“I’m really excited about this opportunity because now we get to take what we do and explore what that looks like in careers,” Jenkins said. “Whether you’re going to a four-year university and beyond, or you’re ready to be someone who travels and does lights and sound.”
While they’re adding a ninth grade, the middle school will eliminate fifth grade next year, and sixth grade the following year.
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The move comes after years of lower enrollment in those grades because most city schools are K-8. Fifth and six graders don’t often switch from those schools to attend a 5-8 middle school.
The new Besty Ross Academy of Art and Design will be seventh through twelfth grade.
Its curriculum may mirror the city’s only other arts high school, Cooperative Arts and Humanities, which consistently has a waitlist of at least 100 students.
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“Our magnet schools are all about what is going to spark the interest of a child to continue learning and to keep them excelling and achieving. And for many students, that is art,” said Marquelle Middleton, New Haven Public Schools director of school choice and enrollment.
They’ll have two areas: arts and design that will include skills like animation, special effects and film making, and performance art that will include on stage talent plus behind the scenes opportunities like set design and sound mixing.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for our young people needing to tap more into knowing what they have in them and what they’re really capable of,” Jenkins said.
The current eighth grade students will have the chance to become the ninth grade class, and the district said they will be able to start taking some students from the Cooperative Arts and Humanities wait list.
They plan to add a new grade each school year until the current eighth graders enter twelfth grade.
