Faculty and staff served as judges. The school's commitment to blending art with interdisciplinary academics has earned it a prestigious five-year grant from the College Board and the Getty Center for Education in the Arts. In return, the school will provide data for a longitudinal study of the impact of arts training on academic achievement. As a public school, the magnet gets the same number of per-pupil dollars as every other school in the Vancouver School District. But this is a district that shows serious commitment to arts education.
Students also take instrumental music twice weekly.
Despite the districtwide commitment to the arts, budget realities still shape programming. That means making trade-offs, says Brzoska. So, at the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, there are no sports. Foreign language is the only elective outside the arts block. The science labs are spare.