Anticipated arts school
is hardly a Rush job

By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

Jessica Brown’s background is in the arts, having played the horn in her high school orchestra and taken classes with the Pennsylvania Ballet Company.
Brown was a history major in college and later earned her master’s degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania. She was assistant principal at the Kensington Creative and Performing Arts High School until being named last month as the first principal of the new Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush.
"I always dreamed of being principal at a creative and performing arts school, and now my dream has come true," said Brown, a member of the All-City Orchestra at Julia Masterman and Germantown Friends who later danced the Nutcracker Suite with the Pennsylvania Ballet.
Benjamin Rush Middle School, at 11081 Knights Road, educated students from 1968 until it closed in June 2006.
The building is being renovated to house the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush, which will open in September.
In the first year, the student enrollment will consist of 150 freshmen. Another 150 ninth-graders will be added in each of the next three years, with permanent enrollment at 600.
"Research shows that smaller high schools are more manageable and academically more successful," Brown said. "A small high school allows a lot of one-on-one attention. Students can learn things in depth."
Unlike Rush Middle School — where the overwhelming majority of students were bused in from other neighborhoods — 70 percent of the students at the Arts Academy will come from the School District of Philadelphia’s Northeast Region.
Renovations are taking place inside and outside the building.
The finished product will feature landscaping on the exterior, with preliminary plans to design a mural with the help of the city’s Mural Arts Program.
Modern classrooms, science laboratories, computer labs, a dance studio, a ceramics studio, music suites, a television production booth, a graphic arts room and a refurbished auditorium and library will highlight the interior.
The existing full-size gymnasium will allow the school to offer sports.
In all, it’s a $25 million project.
"The facility is going to be just fabulous," said Brown, a West Mount Airy native now living in East Falls. "The rooms are spacious, and the auditorium will be solid acoustically."
The principal describes the school as one that will offer a traditional instructional program in which the arts will play a prominent role.
Besides the visual and performing arts, there will be classes in English, algebra, biology, world history, language and writing.
"It will be a rigorous academic school — college preparatory with a focus on arts," Brown said.
"It’s such an important piece to a school for the students to be exposed to the arts."
The Arts Academy will be a special admissions school, meaning students must be accepted based on their grades, attendance and scores on standardized tests. They must also pass an audition.
Already, some students have been accepted into the school and plan to attend. Still, there are openings for September.
Auditions are planned for April in the auditorium at nearby A.L. FitzPatrick School in the areas of vocal, drama, dance, art and instrumental.
Brown has spoken to parents and school counselors and has made presentations about the school. Everyone she talks to is excited about the concept.
A panel will interview prospective faculty members, with the principal expressing a preference for teachers certified in multiple areas. That way, she said, the school will be able to offer more subjects.
Brown plans to be active in the community. She’s already spoken to the staff at the Northeast Family YMCA across the street and will reach out to local civic groups, Settlement Music School and the Katharine Drexel Library branch next door.
The principal would like her students to pursue internships, take part in concerts and go on trips to explore the city’s art scene.
"Philadelphia is so rich culturally," she said.
Work will continue on the school for the next five months until August, when Brown will host an orientation for students and their parents.
"It’s such an exciting time," she said. "We’re here to support the dreams the kids have. It’s exciting to be in a small school to work with kids and nurture their talent. And I’m excited to hear the ideas they have for the school. I really am." ••
For more information about the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush and next month’s auditions, call the Northeast Region office at 215-281-5903.
Reporter Tom Waring can be reached at 215-354-3034 or twaring@phillynews.com