The Coronado School of the Arts Foundation

Case for Support

Why Invest in Arts Education through the CoSA Foundation?

The CoSA Foundation supports the most unique, county-wide, public “school within a school” in San Diego County. CoSA offers talented high school age students both rigorous college-preparatory academics and intensive, conservatory-style arts training. This educational opportunity is available to all qualified San Diego County high school students, regardless of their financial situation.

How Did CoSA Start?

Established in 1996, by a team of innovative arts teachers at Coronado High School, CoSA began with 50 students, meager facilities, and a dream of providing an arts career program for students who wanted and needed more than the typical comprehensive high school could offer.

With an initial Specialized Secondary Program (SSP) Grant from the California State Department of Education in 1996-2001 for $265,000, which funded two portable classrooms for dance studios and the equipment and supplies to start the program, the CoSA arts teacher-team was able to design the most unique arts program for teens in San Diego County. Targeting artistic but alienated teens who felt left out of an education system that seemed to value conformity over creativity, CoSA sought to provide a nurturing environment that allowed teen-age artists to take artistic risks.

Although CoSA is located on the campus of Coronado High School, approximately 68% of the students enrolled are inter-district transfers from San Diego County school districts other than Coronado. This feature of the program was provided by the Coronado Unified School District Board of Education to allow as many talented students as the program could handle to participate in this truly powerful arts education.

Students have enrolled from San Diego communities including Bonita, Hillcrest, downtown San Diego, Imperial Beach, San Ysidro, Point Loma, La Jolla, Scripps Ranch, Carlsbad, Oceanside, San Marcos, Escondido, Valley Center, Pauma, Fallbrook, San Marcos, Vista, Poway, Lakeside, Spring Valley, La Mesa, Ramona, Jamul, and Campo.

Where Are We Now?

After ten years of building the program, CoSA has emerged as a model for other high schools of the arts. For the last two years, CoSA has been designated by the California Department of Education as a State Demonstration Site for Exemplary Specialized Secondary Programs. Educators from all over the country have visited CoSA in order to study the model program.

The school district has recently completed the of remodeling the campus, including a new arts center. In January, 2007, a new 34 million dollar Visual and Performing Arts Center opened, with 3 dance studios, a black box theatre, two art studios, a ceramics studio, a TV studio, orchestra room, music technology lab, two graphic arts studios, a drama room, a scene shop, and a state-of-the-art 600 seat theatre.

Dedicated students commute great distances from all over the region to attend the program because no other public high school in San Diego County offers a comprehensive academic program (including Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses) and concentrated, conservatory instruction and performance opportunities in six arts majors: Classical/Contemporary Dance, Digital Media, Instrumental Music, Musical Theatre and Drama, Technical Theatre, and Visual Art.

What Are the Benefits to the San Diego Community?

CoSA annually enrolls approximately 150 San Diego County students with a particular interest in the arts, which adds to the overall diversity of Coronado High School and enriches the arts experience available to all students.

CoSA has positively affected the education of more than 900 students in its ten years of existence, in many cases giving an opportunity for “at risk” students, who otherwise might not have developed their talent because they lacked direction, motivation and guidance to blossom artistically and academically. CoSA has contributed significantly to expanding San Diego’s pool of highly-educated and artistically-trained young artists.

What Are the Challenges for the Foundation?

Our major challenges can all be related to our financial situation. CoSA, although a part of the high school, is not a fully funded program. Even though CoSA resides at a public school and is therefore considered part of the public school education, the program is almost entirely privately funded because of its extended afternoon of arts classes.

It relies on the CoSA Foundation to provide the funds necessary to provide the components inherent in the school that make it unique- i.e. small class sizes, a longer schol day, artist-teachers, counseling for at-risk students, etc.

The program is open to any San Diego County student as a public resource, yet it is privately financed.

Where Do We Want To Be in the Future?

How Do We Do This?

The CoSA Foundation needs you to invest in this unique program that benefits the community in myriad ways.

You may choose to support CoSA through The CoSA Foundation’s Annual Fund that raises money for operating funds; you may become a Sponsor, funding a component of the CoSA program; you may give gernerously to the Endowment Fund, including participating in the foundation’s Naming rights Campaign.