The beginning of the year comes with new goals and professional learning communities with the performing arts department.

Professional learning communities (also known as PLC’s) are a way that everyone in the performing arts department can create goals for their students as a way to evaluating teachers.

“Always our goal is more than ever, we want them to be better at the academic side of music and that is reading and knowing music theory,” Lamonte Kuskye, the director of choral music, said. “That is a huge goal every year because for singing, most people just do it by hearing. They hear it, then they mimic it. We want them to be able to read the music. The instrumentalists can, but the vocal people need to as well. That’s a huge focus right there for us.”

Sophomore Eric Stockholm takes theater and participates in choir.  He said, “We don’t get much homework, but we do a lot in class. We’re tested on things, such as mime skills, and at the end of the semester we put together a portfolio of all our work. We’re working hard to meet our goals.”