Sunnyside cuts ribbon at fine-arts intermediate school

Students have already begun attending the new Gallego 4-8 Intermediate Fine Arts Magnet School, which aims to integrate arts programs with academics.

“It is our goal at the school to build student outcome through the medium of arts and sciences,” said Jan Vesely, deputy superintendent of Sunnyside, who had a hand in designing the new school.

The new school features a video production center, digital keyboard laboratory, two visual-arts rooms, a choir room, space for an orchestra and a band and a drama room, she said.

There will be a lot of performing opportunities for the students, including mariachi and folklorico, she said.

Teachers for the new school were hired partly based on their artistic or musical backgrounds, she said.

The principal, Anna Warmbrand, who previously headed TUSD’s Vesey Elementary School, was also chosen based on her dancing and artistic background.

“We really value the integration of arts,” Vesely said.

For now, about 600 students in grades four through seven are attending the school, according to Mary Veres, a district spokeswoman. Most of them are students from Gallego Basic Elementary School, which is directly south of the new school and has a roadway connecting to the new intermediate campus.

The school will operate grade 8 in the next school year when the current seventh-graders advance.

The school is housed in the building that was formerly the Chaparral Middle School. The district used funds from a $12 million bond approved by voters in 2011 to renovate the old middle school into what is now Gallego 4-8.

The middle schools in Sunnyside were overpopulated and the district needed another school to serve the community, Veres said. Each middle school had nearly 1,000 students.

“Right now, the school has a waiting list,” she said. “It’s really a desired environment for learning.”