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The Tacoma School of the Arts (SOTA or TSOTA) is the only arts school in the greater
Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Pa ...
, area. SOTA historically only housed grades 10 through 12, but beginning in the 2012 school year, it began admitting students in the 9th grade as well. SOTA's student capacity is around 600 students. SOTA was established in the fall of 2001, with help from the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was l ...
. Classes are housed in multiple venues across downtown Tacoma, in buildings that have historically served many purposes—including a
department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appea ...
, a music store, and a
dance studio A dance studio is a space in which dancers learn or rehearse. The term is typically used to describe a space that has either been built or equipped for the purpose. Overview A dance studio normally includes a smooth floor covering or, if used fo ...
. SOTA and SAMi also offer University of Washington Credits through multiple classes and beginning in 2014 offer over 20 College in the High School classes for credit through Tacoma Community College. SOTA was one of three Washington state school winners of the inaugural state Schools of Excellence in Arts Education Award, part of the national program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Schools of Distinction in Arts Education Awards. Shortly after, SOTA was one of only four schools in the inaugural year to win at the national level.


Students

Many SOTA projects are student-run, including some aspects of the school's administration. Students have directed theatrical productions including ''
The Glass Menagerie ''The Glass Menagerie'' is a memory play by Tennessee Williams that premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame. The play has strong autobiographical elements, featuring characters based on its author, his histrionic mothe ...
'' and ''The Last of the Darling Brent Girls'', the latter also written by a student. Departments offered include those of the Visual Arts (photography, graphic design, film, drawing, and painting) and those of the Performing Arts (songwriting and audio recording, instrumental music, singer-songwriter, vocal music, dance, and technical theater).


Daily life and academics

The school day is arranged to have four periods a day, in block periods over the week. Mondays and Wednesdays at SOTA students attend periods 1–4, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays students attend periods 5–8. There are 20 minute passing periods, as classes are held in over 10 different buildings and businesses. Three of these buildings are owned by Tacoma Public Schools and they are all within one square mile. Some classes are housed in the
University of Washington Tacoma The University of Washington Tacoma (UW Tacoma) is a campus of University of Washington in Tacoma, Washington. The UW Tacoma campus opened in leased space in 1990 and opened its permanent campus in 1997. History Following the establishment of T ...
,
Tacoma Art Museum The Tacoma Art Museum (TAM) is an art museum in Tacoma, Washington, United States. It focuses primarily on the art and artists from the Pacific Northwest and broader western region of the U.S. Founded in 1935, the museum has strong roots in the c ...
and the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts. Annual events include mentor day in the park, and SOTA Camp. For the 2020–2021 school year during which the COVID-19 pandemic was occurring, many students chose remote learning options at SOTA on
Microsoft Teams Microsoft Teams is a proprietary business communication platform developed by Microsoft, as part of the Microsoft 365 family of products. Teams primarily competes with the similar service Slack, offering workspace chat and videoconferenci ...
. Students were arranged into two A and B blocks by last name, with A starting in the morning and B starting in the afternoon. Instead of the usual eight classes, students now only had four classes each semester with the entire schedule changing at the end of one. To compensate for the lack of classes, each class that did not already do so awarded one full credit rather than half. Periods 1/5-2/6 took place on Mondays and Thursdays, with periods 3/7-4/8 occurring on Tuesdays and Fridays. Mentor Project Groups (Advisory classes) were also moved from Friday to Wednesday.


Student opportunities

In 2008, SOTA created its own
FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work during a six-week period to build robots capable of competing in that year's game that weig ...
team with the help of Team 360 from
Bellarmine Preparatory School Bellarmine Preparatory School is a private, Roman Catholic, coeducational high school run by the USA West Province of the Society of Jesus in Tacoma, Washington, United States. It is located in the Archdiocese of Seattle. Today it serves jus ...
. They are Team 2557, the SOTABots. Their first year, the SOTABots came in second, won Rookie of the Year in the FIRST Microsoft Seattle Regional, and went on to get 22nd place in their division in the
FIRST Championship The FIRST Championship is a four-day robotics championship held annually in April at which FIRST student robotics teams compete. For several years, the event was held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, but moved to the Edward Jones Dome i ...
. Since 2008, the SOTABots have won the Microsoft Seattle Regional in 2010, the Seattle Cascade Regional in 2012, and multiple awards for their Gracious Professionalism and their safety practices.


Notable alumni


In popular culture

Several SOTA buildings were used in the film ''
10 Things I Hate About You ''10 Things I Hate About You'' is a 1999 American teen romantic comedy film directed by Gil Junger and starring Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Larisa Oleynik. The screenplay, written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten ...
''; the guitar store in the film is now part of the SOTA music department, as well as Club SOTA, an all-ages club hosted by the school.


Sister schools

The Tacoma Science and Math Institute, or SAMI, opened for the 2009–2010 school year. Industrial Design, Engineering, and Arts, also known as IDEA was opened in the 2016–2017 school year. They are both the district's other magnet schools, with a schedule and concept similar to SOTA.


References


External links

*
School of the Arts
at the
Tacoma Public Schools Tacoma School District No. 10, commonly called Tacoma Public Schools, is a school district headquartered in Tacoma, Washington, United States. Composed of 35 elementary schools, 11 middle schools, 10 high schools, and 4 early learning centers. It ...
Site
Official SOTA Bot website

http://www0.tacoma.k12.wa.us/schools/hsx/sami/ SAMI home
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tacoma School Of The Arts High schools in Pierce County, Washington Schools in Tacoma, Washington Art schools in Washington (state) Public high schools in Washington (state) Magnet schools in Washington (state) Educational institutions established in 2001 2001 establishments in Washington (state)