School for Creative and Performing Arts

School for Creative and Performing Arts

The School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) is a magnet arts school in Cincinnati in the US state of Ohio. SCPA was founded in 1973 as one of the first magnet schools in Cincinnati. In 2010 SCPA combined with the Schiel Primary School for Arts Enrichment to create the first kindergarten through twelfth grade arts school and first private sector art school in the U.S.

About School for Creative and Performing Arts in brief

Summary School for Creative and Performing ArtsThe School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) is a magnet arts school in Cincinnati in the US state of Ohio. SCPA was founded in 1973 as one of the first magnet schools in Cincinnati. In 2010 SCPA combined with the Schiel Primary School for Arts Enrichment to create the first kindergarten through twelfth grade arts school and first private sector art school in the U.S. The school rose to national prominence in the 1980s, but was nearly closed in the 1990s following a series of scandals, leadership struggles, and an arson fire which destroyed the auditorium. Its reputation recovered in the years that followed and in 2009–10, the school was featured in the MTV reality series Taking the Stage, filmed at the school and featuring SCPA students. The emphasis is on performance, and students in every field are required to perform or present their work in public regularly. On standardized tests, SCPA ranks second among Cincinnati public schools. Ninety percent of graduating seniors continue on to college, and those students receive one of the highest levels of scholarship funding in the city. Students must audition for admission; fewer than 20 percent of those who apply each year are accepted. The newly combined school will serve approximately 1,300 students in 2010, offering a curriculum designed to prepare students for professional careers in creative writing, dance, drama, music, technical theater, and visual art. It has produced notable graduates in a wide range of artistic fields, including award-winning actors, singers, directors and technicians. In 1965, Cincinnati’s music teachers founded the Cincinnati-City Choir, where they established the discipline the boys in the choir carried over into their academic studies.

They conceived the idea of a combined school where basic education with intensive artistic attention with artistic talents was combined with intensive attention to children’s talents. They turned to private funding and won a USD 292,000 grant from Ralph Corbett, Jbett, Ralph Murray, and Tom Corbett. In 1973, they pushed for a tax levy as part of the west-central division of Cincinnati elementary schools. The measure was defeated; the tax levy was approved with a drastically reduced budget of USD 27,000 plus USD 9,850 from the Board of Education’s general fund. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Cincinnati Public Schools had grown more segregated and the Supreme Court of the United States upheld forced busing as a remedy for school segregation in other cities. The city prevailed when a federal judge found that the schools were not intentionally segregated, but that they were simply a result of the racial composition of the neighborhoods which they serve. The theory behind alternative schools was open enrollment: students could attend any alternative school they chose at no cost, so long as an even racial balance at the new school was maintained. So far as possible, students were admitted to these programs on a one white for one black basis. The School for creative and Per performing Arts was the first alternative school in what would become one of one of largest and most robust magnet programs in the country.