The Appomattox Regional Governor's School for the Arts And Technology (locally and colloquially sometimes known as ARGS, ARGSAT, Appomattox, or the Governor's School) is a public regional magnet high school

Magnet school

In education in the United States, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities as school zones that feed into certain schools.There are magnet schools at the...

 in downtown Petersburg

Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...

, Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

.

One of 18 Virginia Governor's Schools

Governor's Schools (Virginia)

The Governor's Schools are a collection of regional magnet high schools and summer programs in the Commonwealth of Virginia intended for gifted students....

, it draws students from 14 localities: Chesterfield

Chesterfield County, Virginia

Chesterfield County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. In 2010, its population was estimated to be 316,236. Chesterfield County is now the fourth-largest municipality in Virginia . Its county seat is Chesterfield...

, Richmond

Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

, Petersburg

Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...

, Dinwiddie

Dinwiddie, Virginia

Dinwiddie is a small unincorporated community in and the county seat of Dinwiddie County, Virginia, United States. The town was the site of the Battle of Dinwiddie Court House, the Battle of Five Forks as well as the Battle of Sutherland's Station during the Appomattox Campaign.The town is near the...

, Colonial Heights

Colonial Heights, Virginia

Colonial Heights is an independent city in Virginia, United States. The population was 17,411 as of 2010. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the City of Colonial Heights with Dinwiddie County for statistical purposes...

, Hopewell

Hopewell, Virginia

Hopewell is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 22,591 at the 2010 Census . It is in Tri-Cities area of the Richmond-Petersburg region and is a portion of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, Prince George

Prince George County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 33,047 people, 10,159 households, and 8,096 families residing in the county. The population density was 124 people per square mile . There were 10,726 housing units at an average density of 40 per square mile...

, Powhatan

Powhatan County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 22,377 people, 7,258 households, and 5,900 families residing in the county. The population density was 86 people per square mile . There were 7,509 housing units at an average density of 29 per square mile...

, Sussex

Sussex County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 12,504 people, 4,126 households, and 2,809 families residing in the county. The population density was 26 people per square mile . There were 4,653 housing units at an average density of 10 per square mile...

, Surry

Surry County, Virginia

As of the census of 2010, there were 7,058 people, 2,619 households, and 1,917 families residing in the county. The population density was 24 people per square mile . There were 3,294 housing units at an average density of 12 per square mile...

, Charles City

Charles City, Virginia

Charles City is a census-designated place in and the county seat of Charles City County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 Census was 133....

, Amelia

Amelia County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 11,400 people, 4,240 households, and 3,175 families residing in the county. The population density was 32 people per square mile . There were 4,609 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile...

, Southampton and Franklin City

Franklin, Virginia

Franklin is an independent city in Virginia. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Franklin with Southampton county for statistical purposes. The population was 8,582 in 2010.-History:...

.

Organization

Formerly fiscally run by the Petersburg

Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...

 school district, ARGS is now under the fiscal control of Chesterfield County

Chesterfield County, Virginia

Chesterfield County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. In 2010, its population was estimated to be 316,236. Chesterfield County is now the fourth-largest municipality in Virginia . Its county seat is Chesterfield...

. It receives approximately $7000 for each student from their home districts. The other primary sources of funding are private grants, federal grants, state money and individual donations. The school has a Governing Board, composed of representatives or superintendents

Superintendent (education)

In education in the United States, a superintendent is an individual who has executive oversight and administration rights, usually within an educational entity or organization....

 from each participating district, that functions in much the same role as a school board but also rules on admissions and other school-specific issues.

History

While purported

Urban legend

An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...

 to be an overflow hospital during the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, and later a morgue, in reality ARGS is the extensively renovated Petersburg High School, located at 512 W. Washington Street in downtown Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...

.

The building first opened its doors as ARGS on Tuesday, September 7, 1999. For the first operating year, the school was home to nearly 90 students in the ninth and tenth grades. Currently the school serves approximately 350 students in grades 9-12, with an ever-increasing student population.

Academics

Once accepted into the school, students must maintain a GPA of 2.5 and conform to all of the standards of the regional board. The student is required to maintain good academic standing and may remain in the school as long as they reside in a participating school district and funding school. The school also teaches dual enrollment.

Specialized Classes

In addition to the common core classes, ARGS offers specific "tracks" in specialized classes for a student's focus area. These include: Performing Arts: musical theatre

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

, theatre arts

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

, technical theatre

Stagecraft

Stagecraft is a generic term referring to the technical aspects of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes, but is not limited to, constructing and rigging scenery, hanging and focusing of lighting, design and procurement of costumes, makeup, procurement of props, stage management, and...

, modern dance

Modern dance

Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Intro:...

, jazz dance

Jazz dance

Jazz dance is a classification shared by a broad range of dance styles. Before the 1950s, jazz dance referred to dance styles that originated from African American vernacular dance. In the 1950s, a new genre of jazz dance—modern jazz dance—emerged, with roots in Caribbean traditional dance...

, ballet

Ballet

Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...

, vocal music

Vocal music

Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...

, instrumental music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, and piano performance; Visual Arts: sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

, painting

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

, drawing

Drawing

Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...

, graphic design

Graphic design

Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...

, photography

Photography

Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

 and film studies

Filmmaking

Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, directing, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a theatrical release or television program...

; Literary Arts: poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

, fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

, and non-fiction

Non-fiction

Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...

; and Communication Arts/Technology: computer programming

Computer programming

Computer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a...

 and engineering

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

.

PowerSchool

In the 2004-2005 school year ARGSAT introduced the PowerSchool

PowerSchool

PowerSchool is a student information system product of Pearson's Assessment & Information group.-History:PowerSchool was purchased by Apple Inc. on March 13, 2001....

 program which allows parents to view grades, attendance, and teacher comments regarding their children at any time. It also allows students to check, in real time, their grades and for missing assignments.

SharePoint

At the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year, another communications service was introduced to the faculty and students of ARGS. Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

's SharePoint system is now used by most teachers, focus areas, classes, and staff members of the school as a communication area. This new system allows teachers and students to log in and view daily announcements, deadlines, important dates, club information, and sometimes individual class assignments from any computer with internet connectivity. ARGS I.T. migrated from Sharepoint by the end of the 2010 school year for a Wordpress site.

Google Apps

Near the end of the 2009-2010 ARGS I.T. implemented Google Apps in full. This has provided faster, more reliable, and more accessible email for faculty, staff, and students. Class assignments are now made available on the much simpler Google Sites, while Google Docs enables students to collaborate on projects quickly and easily from the comfort of their home computer.

No Virus Protection

100% of Virus Protection was removed from all computer during the summer of 2010 and was then replaced with Application Signing that was built into Windows 7 and Server 2008. This has proven to be effective at keeping data safe while no longer having to pay the outrageous costs of AV.

Alumni

ARGS graduated its first senior class in June, 2002. In the few short years of the school's existence, alumni of the Appomattox Regional Governor's School have enrolled in many prestigious colleges and universities, including Bard College

Bard College

Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...

, Berklee School of Music, Butler University

Butler University

Butler University is a private university located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university offers 60 degree programs to 4,400 students through six colleges: business, communication, education, liberal Arts and sciences, pharmacy and health...

, Christopher Newport University

Christopher Newport University

Christopher Newport University, or CNU, is a public liberal arts university located in Newport News, Virginia, United States. CNU is the youngest comprehensive university in the Commonwealth of Virginia...

, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music

Cincinnati Conservatory of Music

The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music was a conservatory, part of a girls' finishing school, founded in 1867 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It merged with the College of Music of Cincinnati in 1955, forming the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, which is now part of the University of Cincinnati.The...

, Cooper Union

Cooper Union

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...

, Duke University

Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

, East Carolina University, Elon University

Elon University

Elon University is a private liberal arts university in Elon, North Carolina, United States. Formerly known as Elon College, it became Elon University on June 1, 2001. The campus is a botanical garden and features oak trees, brick sidewalks, fountains, and lakes...

, Emerson College

Emerson College

Emerson College is a private coeducational university located in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of oratory," Emerson is "the only comprehensive college or university in America dedicated exclusively to communication and the arts in a liberal arts...

, George Mason University

George Mason University

George Mason University is a public university based in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, south of and adjacent to the city of Fairfax. Additional campuses are located nearby in Arlington County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County...

, Hampton University

Hampton University

Hampton University is a historically black university located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. It was founded by black and white leaders of the American Missionary Association after the American Civil War to provide education to freedmen.-History:...

, The Hartt School, Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, Howard University

Howard University

Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...

, James Madison University, Louisiana Tech, University of North Carolina School of the Arts

University of North Carolina School of the Arts

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts , formerly the North Carolina School of the Arts, is a public coeducational arts conservatory in Winston-Salem, North Carolina that grants high school, undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is one of the seventeen constituent campuses of the...

, NYU Tisch School of the Arts

Tisch School of the Arts

Tisch School of the Arts is one of the 15 schools that make up New York University ....

, Oberlin Conservatory of Music

Oberlin Conservatory of Music

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, located on the campus of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, was founded in 1865 and is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. Students of Oberlin Conservatory enter a very broad network within the music world, as the school's alumni...

, Old Dominion University

Old Dominion University

Old Dominion University is a state university located in Norfolk, Virginia, United States, and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools...

, Parsons The New School for Design

Parsons The New School for Design

Parsons The New School For Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is the art and design college of The New School university. It is located in New York City's Greenwich Village, and has produced artists and designers such as Marc Jacobs, Dean and Dan Caten, Norman Rockwell, Donna Karan, Jane...

, Penn State, Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

, Sarah Lawrence College

Sarah Lawrence College

Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...

, Savannah College of Art and Design

Savannah College of Art and Design

SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design, is a private, accredited and degree-granting university with locations in Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia, Hong Kong, and Lacoste, France.-History:...

, School of Visual Arts

School of Visual Arts

The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...

, Shenandoah Conservatory

Shenandoah University

Shenandoah University is a comprehensive private university located in Winchester, Virginia in the United States. It has an enrollment of approximately 3,800 students across more than ninety programs in six schools: College of Arts & Sciences, Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business, Shenandoah...

, Spelman College

Spelman College

Spelman College is a four-year liberal arts women's college located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The college is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman was the first historically black female...

, University of the Arts, University of Virginia

University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

, VCU School of the Arts, Virginia State University

Virginia State University

Virginia State University is a historically black and land-grant university located north of the Appomattox River in Chesterfield, in the Richmond area. Founded on , Virginia State was the United States's first fully state-supported four-year institution of higher learning for black Americans...

 and Virginia Tech, Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, to name a few. The 73-member class of 2006's total financial aid/scholarship

Scholarship

A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...

 award is currently the largest in the school's history, topping 2 million dollars.

In June 2007, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of ARGS' first graduation ceremony, the ARGS Alumni Association was formed, to help connect the growing alumni and coordinate planned efforts for an alumni presence at the campus.

Athletics

ARGS offers its students four sports with six teams: Boy's and Girl's Tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

, Coed Soccer, Boy's and Girl's Basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, district winning Cheerleading, and Girl's state winning Volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

. The school has no fields of its own, using local Battlefield Park for Tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 and Cameron Field for Soccer.

Selection Process

All students who are accepted into ARGS are required to have at least a B average in the seventh grade. They are also required to have completed Algebra I

Algebra

Algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning the study of the rules of operations and relations, and the constructions and concepts arising from them, including terms, polynomials, equations and algebraic structures...

 by their ninth grade year although occasionally exceptions will be made and an Algebra course outside of school will be assigned. It is highly recommended that applicants have completed a course in Dance

Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....

, Art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

, and/or Music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, Basic Computer Science

Computer science

Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

, and a Foreign Language

Foreign language

A foreign language is a language indigenous to another country. It is also a language not spoken in the native country of the person referred to, i.e. an English speaker living in Japan can say that Japanese is a foreign language to him or her...

. Students are required to apply and go through an adjudication process. This process consists of an interview with the department head of the focus area in which the student is applying and possibly an audition, depending on the department.

External links

• Appomattox Regional Governor's School for the Arts and Technology
• ARGS Alumni Association