Principal's Message
Welcome to Arbolita Visual and Performing Arts Academy!
I am so excited that you have chosen to reach out to Arbolita and eagerly anticipate you being part of our educational journey here! Our school serves students in Transitional Kindergarten through Sixth Grade. We also have an exciting school focus--Visual and Performing Arts! We have so many exciting instructional programs and parent involvement opportunities to share with you. The staff at Arbolita is committed to providing high quality education, intervention, and enrichment!
The staff at Arbolita shares a desire and commitment to provide our students with a 21st Century education emphasizing Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Communication. It is our goal for students to become lifelong learners who are responsible citizens, fluent readers, problem solvers, technologically aware and effective communicators prepared for college and careers.
By working together in a cooperative spirit we continue to achieve wonderful things for our students. The Arbolita staff embraces the qualities of a Professional Learning Community. Being a Professional Learning Community school means our teachers meet regularly to discuss the performance of students, hold collaborative discussions of grade level planning, conduct Professional Development training, and review our expectations for student achievement and progress. Our goal is to seek the best in every child and create improvement in academics and student responsibility for positive behavior. Students and families should continue to see increased academic rigor in our curriculum throughout the school year.
In 2019, Arbolita was recognized as an Excellence in Arts Education School by the California Department of Education-- the only school in Orange County to earn that honor in 2019 and one of only 13 schools recognized in California. As a Visual and Performing Arts Academy, I am so excited to share with you the amazing opportunities we offer our students. We have a music director who teaches music to all grades. Specifically in grades 2 through 5, our students benefit from our Lang Lang grant and spend two periods a week learning the piano in our state-of-the-art piano lab. Students in grade 6 also have the opportunity to learn the piano. In addition, our 5th and 6th grade students can participate in our choir, instrumental band, and/or learn how to play the ukulele. Our 3rd through 6th graders have the opportunity to participate in our Disney Musicals in Schools production after school. We are excited to continue to infuse the arts into our daily instruction, and we are excited to be a partner with the Kennedy Center in the Any Given Child Initiative in continuing our growth as a community involved in the arts. Arbolita has also received the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Support Music Merit Award in both 2019 and 2020.
We look forward to continuing in the partnership of involvement and support that we have experienced from families and the community at Arbolita. It is our hope that our community and families continue enriching our school and participating in school events throughout the school year.
Feel free to call or email us anytime. We would love to share more about our wonderful Arbolita Visual and Performing Arts Academy!
Thank you for your support of Arbolita Elementary!
Jennifer McCully-Rodriguez, Principal