- Marysville Arts & Technology High School
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Marysville Arts & Technology High School, often abbreviated A&T, is an option school in the Marysville School District in Washington state, dedicated to the incorporation of arts and technology in everyday life.
Contents
History
The original building
Marysville Arts & Technology High School was developed by Dr. Bruce Saari, who modeled its program philosophy and policies after those of Bellevue and Lake Washington International Schools. An intensive five month effort during the spring and summer of 2003 provided time to transform an office park into a school, as well as to recruit students, families and hire the inaugural staff for the school opening. [1]
The strike-riddled 2003-04 school year saw the opening of Arts and Technology High School.[citation needed] Bruce Saari was its principal, though he would eventually leave at the end of the year. The amount of students was small; approximately 150 students attended the school in its first year.[citation needed] Only two grade levels were present, those being freshmen and sophomore[citation needed]. Classes rotated between A and B days.[citation needed] Most students present during the year report being very happy with the environment, and basically everyone got along.[citation needed] However, many of them would nevertheless leave after their first year.[citation needed]
After just a month-long summer break, the 2004-05 year saw a new wave of about 90 freshmen[citation needed], bringing the total amount of students to around 190 at the peak[citation needed]. Also new to the school was the replacement principal, John Lombardi[citation needed]. The number of the previous year's sophomores (now juniors) had drastically reduced, with only 20 or so left[citation needed]. A and B days no longer existed, bringing the school schedule back to a more traditional system[citation needed]. The single hallway was crowded nearly every day, sometimes taking up to two minutes to navigate down the entire length[citation needed]. A new language, French, was added as a class, although there was only one class, and it would not become an option until the next year. The school received new computers in the second quarter, bringing the total amount of labs up to three[citation needed]. As there was no senior class, nobody graduated. Once again, some students left at the year's end.[citation needed] A notable addition to the school was the first exchange student program, which brought in two more students.
During 2005-06, the amount of students rose to around 220[citation needed]. The hallway was more crowded than ever, and passing time between classes was only four minutes instead of the usual five making it more difficult to travel between them and make it to class on time.[citation needed]. Also added was a literacy period, which was created to keep the year's sophomores from sinking to the low WASL scores put up the previous year[citation needed]. A Physical Education class was added, and like French the year before there was only one class. Advanced Placement classes were also introduced. The school was no longer running on its own servers, instead switching to ones run by the school district. This limited the amount of space per student, and files from the previous two years seemed lost. However, some students managed to locate the files. The now seniors were by far the smallest class, with only 16 students, 14 of which graduated. This was also the last year with Lombardi as principal. Six more exchange students would come to the school through its program, one of which stayed for the first half of the following year.[citation needed]
The 2006-07 year saw even more students arrive, bringing the total to about 250. Also were the arrivals of new principal Frank Redmon and vice-principal Tom McKay. The schedule from the previous year carried over to the first semester, and the sheer amount of people in the hallway made getting to classes on time a near-impossibility. After three years the school finally had PE classes available to all students, whereas before the only option was to complete the class outside of school. The second half of the year saw the end of literacy and four-minute passing times, bringing the schedule to how it had been over a year and a half earlier. Perhaps the most notable change were the graduation requirements. The original freshmen (now seniors) were required to complete a "Senior Project" in order to pass, which was a collection of their best works from each class. They were also required to complete 15 hours of community service individually, or 30 hours if working with a partner. A new server was also added for students in yearbook, photography, and animation classes, as files used by those students took up large amounts of space.
This year did not go without its share of wrongdoing. Many students knew the password to a user account that was authorized only for staff to use, and one student used it to remove the web blocks that the school had enforced. For a day this caused internet speeds to drastically reduce, as many students took advantage of this and, as a result, used up a great deal of bandwidth. This was promptly fixed the next day. Another popular method of getting around the blocks was through the use of a tool named Tor, which the students could put on a flash drive and use at their disposal. Eventually a fair amount of students were caught and were required to fill out a new terms-of-use form. As the senior prank for 2007, a less than pleased staff found a popcorn filled student lounge. Four more exchange students came to the school, and in addition to learning in an American environment, they also helped students out in the language classes.
2007-08 and the new building
For the past year, plans were in the making for a new building. One that could accommodate more students, classes, and activities. However, construction permits could not be obtained until the summer, so the opening of the new building was delayed until three months into the year. This worried everyone at first, since about 100 new freshmen would be arriving and the current location could not hold 300 students. On the first day, it was revealed that the freshmen (now the largest class, surpassing the class of 2008 which had been the largest for three years) would stay at Totem Middle School until the new building could be completed.
Numerous changes were brought to the schedule and graduation requirements. The year was split into trimesters, with only 5 periods during the first two and 4 for the last. When they moved into the new building there were three lunches instead of the usual two because of the influx of students. The Senior Project requirements were increased as well. Seniors now had to complete 40 hours of community service individually and 60 for partners. Their final presentation could also be no longer than 30 minutes without a time deduction on their score.
The year started off normally, and with the absence of freshmen the hallway congestion was down to levels not seen for over two years.
The new campus officially opened on December 10, 2007, with a benefit concert being held to raise money for the senior class. The staff rushed to move all the school's equipment to the new building, with the help of some students as well. The students' first day started on December 21, highlighted by a day-long assembly in which the freshmen were welcomed, and a wrongly-wired fire alarm that kept students outside in the snow for half an hour.
Marysville Arts and Technology High School is located on Marysville's Secondary Campus, alongside 10th Street Middle School and Heritage High School.[2]
Mascot
A&T's mascot is the Penguin. Their colors are blue, silver and black.[citation needed] At one point during the 2004-05 year, a contest was held to possibly change the mascot to a dragon, but a majority of students voted for the mascot to remain a penguin.[citation needed] The original logo was roughly and quickly drawn by former student Darby Janssen, but has since been replaced.[citation needed]
Test scores
In 2006, Marysville Arts and Technology High School sophomores scored higher on the WASL than any other school in Snohomish County.[citation needed]
References
External links
Categories:- High schools in Snohomish County, Washington
- Marysville, Washington
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