VAPA Academy & VAPA Discovery ELO Programs

Visual & Performing Arts education as a foundation for Multicurricular Expanded Learning Opportunities

  • VAPA Discovery Program (2025-2026) – Tues, Thurs afterschool, Spring Intersession, Summer 2026 three-week program
  • VAPA Academy Program (2023-2025) – on hiatus at CESD, available for development in Placer County area schools. Afterschool everyday, plus Spring & Summer programming, culminating in productions & Showcases.

 

VAPA Discovery ELO Program (2025-2026):

New to 2025-2026 academic year and Summer 2026, VAPA Discovery visual and performing arts (VAPA) ELO program is conceived to provide afterschool, Spring Intersession and a Summer Program that uses discovery and exploratory learning methods to continue the integration of language art, social sciences and STEM into a foundational curriculum of visual and performing arts.

VAPA Discovery program is a more flexible program, as it follows the interests of the students related to a variety of media, themes and cultural explorations. It will not include productions, nor offer structured curriculum with incremental milestones that build toward a culminating production.

VAPA Discovery program is offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays afterschool, all day during Spring Intersession and all day for 3 weeks in Summer 2026.

FMI visit Colfax ESD office for the Registration form, or download 2025-2026 Registration Form:

Enrollment:

  • CESD Students (ADA 16 students)

 

STAFF QUICK REFERENCE

VAPA Discovery Staff

                

 

Education Facilitators & Visiting Artists

  • Gina Hill, Supervising Education Facilitator / VAPA Program Specialist. Technical Theater & Stage Mgmt specialist
  • Jennifer Taylor – Associate Education Facilitator.  MS Anthropology with specialization in students with learning disabilities, and parental involvement in student education. (not pictured)
  • Judy Merrick, Visiting Artist.  Professional Actor, Director (over 10 years in NY)

Subs:

  • Hunter Forsyth – Associate Education Facilitator. Completing BA/BS degree, Eagle Scout former pack leader, guide & student services at Quarry Park Adventure.
  • Teresa Stirling Forsyth – Executive Admin of VAPA Academy Program, occasional Full Education Facilitator substitute teacher

 

 

ON HIATUS at CESD:

VAPA Academy ELO Program:

Thanks to the State of California, funds were made available to school districts in CA to provide expanded learning opportunity educational programs operated by the schools in concert with community entities. VAPA Academy is an afterschool program conceived by CESD Superintendent of Schools and is held in a classroom (classroom #20), not a children’s theater company space.  There are no performances offered to the public, nor ticket sales.

Instead, VAPA students receive an education in arts related curriculum that integrates science, technology, engineering, mathematics and social sciences (STEM-S) from Education Facilitators with visual & performing arts curriculum to provide students with knowledge and techniques that will carry them into the future.

  • For example, a lesson plan on lighting design may include asking students how do we see, how different lighting affects us, etc., which allows students to hold conversations and make discoveries related to Physics: Optics, to include light spectrums, ROYGBIV (visible light, refracted light, rainbow colors), the Biology & Anatomy of vision, the Psychology of perception and color. Sophisticated topics and questions are distilled & adapted to grade level, and allow students to further develop their analytical, critical and creative thinking skills.

VAPA Academy Offerings 2024-2025

  • Currently: August 2024 thru May 2025 – Afterschool Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELO) Program
  • Spring Intersession 2025 (April 14-18 from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.)
  • Summer Program 2025 (June 2 – July 3, 2025, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.)

VAPA Academy hours of operation

    • Regular days (Tues-Fri): 2:30 to 6 p.m. (attendance ideal until 4:30 p.m.)
    • Regular Mondays: 1:30 to 6 p.m. (attendance required 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.)
    • Minimum days: 11:45 to 6 p.m. (attendance not required)
    • Closed during school holidaysAfterschool ELO

Attendance until at least 4:30 is ideal, as lesson plans usually occur between 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Students may miss hours or days due to afterschool commitments, like sports.

  • Spring/Summer:
    • 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday thru Friday
    • Holidays: Closed

 

VAPA Academy education features

  • 21st Century Skills acquisition
    • creativity, critical thinking, collaborative problem solving, cultural competency, ethical decision making, effective written and oral communications, leadership and more
  • All four areas of student development – social, emotional, physical & mental
    • Social-Emotional learning, Imagination, Critical thinking, Problem Finding, Problem Solving, Decision Making & Strategic Planning, Communication, Organization (and time management), Peer Leadership, Creative Thinking, Collaboration & Teamwork, Functional Group Leadership, Self-Advocacy, Perspective taking (including Roleplay) & Mindfulness, Focus & Self-control
    • Includes SEL & ELA integration (Social & Emotional learning, Language Arts & Social Studies integration)
  • Exploratory & Discovery learning methods
    • curriculum includes lesson plans that use experiential and interactive facilitated learning opportunities
      • Exploratory: Students form hypothesis, engage/observe/collect data, then review/adapt/change hypothesis to develop a data-based, informed conclusions
      • Discovery: Students actively participate in their learning process by investigating topics via inquiry and exploration. It is a student-centered approach that stresses problem-solving, critical thinking, and inquiry-based learning. Teacher is a facilitator, a resource in the room, but the students lead their own discovery (as able by grade).

VAPA Academy - example summer 2024 flyer

 

Summary

Since 2023, the VAPA Academy of Colfax has been in operation, developed in partnership with Colfax Elementary School District for grades pre-K through grade 8. Huge thanks belong to Superintendent Andrew Giannini and the Colfax Elementary School District for their scholastic creativity and vision.

The VAPA Academy program uses the visual & performing arts as a foundation from which applied arts, language arts, social sciences and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) may be integrated and explored through non-traditional thematic and experiential curriculum & activities outside the regular academic school day to address all four areas of student development: social, emotional, physical, and mental.

Through expert facilitation using primarily exploratory & discovery learning/teaching methods, students learn to creatively & imaginatively conceive, plan, author, collaborate, lead functional groups, direct, design/craft, produce and perform age-appropriate new works relevant to the students, reflective of their individual voices and collaborative group voice.  Participating artists/educators are featured below.

VAPA Academy - guided play and technique learned through engagement with visual arts media and performing arts items, like costumes and props.  VAPA Academy - Alice post-show photo op

 

The VAPA Academy program has three formats:

  1. SPRING INTERSESSION: All-day programming for one week during school break.
    • Theater Fundamentals, Visual & Applied Arts
  2. SUMMER PROGRAM: All-Day, morning session or afternoon session programming for four to six weeks outside the regular academic school year.
    • Five weeks of growing competency in Fine & Applied Arts and Performing Arts, including fundamental techniques
  3. EXPANDED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES After School Program: Daily afternoon programming throughout the academic school year.
    • Building foundational competency in artistry, design, craft and technique through the acquisition and growth of 21st Century Skills (critical thinking, peer leadership, creativity, etc.)

 

           

We are very grateful to be operating this program in partnership with the Colfax Elementary School District

FMI: Contact the Colfax Elementary School District – https://www.colfax.k12.ca.us/

(Superintendent Dr. Andrew Giannini)

For more background information on the VAPA Academy program, scroll down.

 

Artists/Educators:

This program is on hiatus.

VAPA PROGRAM BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The VAPA Academy is an after-care program with exciting visual & performing arts curriculum. Students find their own voices and learn visual & performing art techniques.

The VAPA Academy program employs a deep-learning approach through the application of a rich visual and performing arts curriculum that applies interdisciplinary thematic and experiential education (such as studying and applying Stanislavski technique to script analysis) to provide expanded learning opportunities. Experienced artists/creatives facilitate hands-on education and self-directed learning opportunities for the students. Under expert guidance and supervision, students learn to conceive, plan, collaborate and lead, design/craft, author and produce age-appropriate new works relevant to the students, from a new painting or clay scupture to authoring a playscript, reflective of their individual voices and collaborative group voice.  Students learn through reflection on the curriculum and activities, and with facilitation, to deduce and draw connections between academic and artistic disciplines.

Grounded in a visual and performing arts curriculum, students shall experience an interdisciplinary approach, in which they are exposed to the interrelationship of other topicals areas of study to the arts, including Language Arts (LA), Social Sciences, and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

The VAPA Academy curriculum and activities provided address all four areas of student development: social, emotional, physical, and mental.  The features and benefits of The VAPA Academy afterschool program includes

  • Experiential learning opportunities (engaging with visual art supplies from a variety of media, and learning storytelling, scriptwriting and acting techniques)
  • Exposure to and engagement in curriculum and activities not offered during the school day
  • Skill introduction and development opportunities
  • Development of each student’s unique voice and capacity to lead and collaborate with peers and functional groups
  • Student engagement in healthy choices and behaviors
  • Exposure to and engagement with the concepts and operational edicts related to diversity, inclusion, access and equity
  • Daily exposure to and opportunity to learn from professional practitioners with expertise and skillsets not represented during the regular school day
  • Enjoyment of arts programming benefits as summarized by the 1998 study depicted below.

All learning styles will be taken into consideration for VAPA Academy curriculum and activity development: Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic styles.

As NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said in 2008, “Expanding access to afterschool and other extended learning programs, which engage and enrich students, will provide many more of our students with firm foundations for success.”

Placer Repertory Theater VAPA Academy page - arts & the educational benefit slide 1999 study

(“Living the Arts through Language + Learning: A Report on Community-based Youth Organizations,” Shirley Brice Heath, Stanford University and Carnegie Foundation For the Advancement of Teaching, Americans for the Arts Monograph, November 1998.)

VAPA Academy - flamingo & do-do bird from Alice's adventures underground

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VAPA ACADEMY is a division of Placer Repertory Theater and operates separately from its own funds account from PRT.

 

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