Integrated Arts Academy Turns 10 It started with a question: “What if?”


By JESSICA HANDRIK, Education Director


A decade ago, the Flynn, along with higher education partner Saint Michael’s College, responded to the call for proposals for two new magnet schools to be created in Burlington by wondering what a school founded on Words Come Alive—the Flynn’s nationally recognized arts integration approach to teaching—would look like. What if there were a school where access to high quality arts experiences in and outside of the classroom were a given, as expected and everyday as recess and math? The Burlington School District responded favorably, and the Integrated Arts Academy was awarded one of the two slots, out of nineteen proposals.


So how is it going ten years later? Perhaps the most compelling measure of success is that the school, previously the H.O. Wheeler Elementary School, has gone from being under-enrolled to having a significant waitlist.


And why is that? What has happened along the way? The school convened this past June at the Flynn for their annual end-of-year, day-long retreat to reflect on just that. Stepping back to reflect on successes and challenges and to generate ideas for the next decade, school faculty and administration, along with Flynn staff and teaching artists, engaged in the creation of a timeline of milestones and benchmarks.


Key moments of growth for the school and its partnership with the Flynn have included whole school faculty retreats to create a shared vision, professional learning experiences—such as the Flynn’s Engaging Active Learners and Arts Literacy Institutes— whole school attendance at Flynn Student Matinees, and the creation of the “arts coach” role to facilitate daily arts integration. Examples of this integration include exploring key moments in Vermont’s history through drama activities that put students at the center of the action, taking on the point of view of powerful figures and empathizing with the most vulnerable. This year, a key development was the inauguration of Family Arts Take-out Night, a multi-arts, hands-on, evening of art-making and community


Flynn Education Director Jessica Handrik and I.A.A. Principal Bobby Riley.


building, co-conceived and implemented by Flynn and IAA staff. What is essential is that the school has never wavered from its original mission, largely due to the tenacity of its two key leaders and champions, principal Bobby Riley and instructional coach Judy Klima.


“At the Integrated Arts Academy, it is important that all of our students and their families feel a strong connection to the school community,” Klima says. “The Flynn’s Everybody Belongs mission echoes our philosophy so perfectly and thus paves the way for some brilliant work to be done through our partnership. The benefits from these collaborative artistic opportunities ripple far beyond the moment and travel with our students and families.”


Principal Riley adds that IAA’s “partnership is not only positively affecting the students and families that call IAA their school, but is contributing to the vibrancy of the arts community in Burlington as a whole.”


So what about the next ten years? What are our next set of “what ifs?”


We left the June retreat with myriad ideas for how to build on our foundation, including a collaborative process to design Words Come Alive variations, professional learning opportunities that focus on more recent school priorities, convening school partners to brainstorm ways to further support teachers, students, and families, and supporting students with Independent Education Plans and social emotional learning.


Key local and foundational support continues to make this work possible. Beyond the walls of IAA, we are working to ensure that all of Burlington’s K12 students have access to the kinds of high quality arts experiences that are a routine at IAA. Having learned so much from IAA about what is possible when schools and the community come together through the arts, the next ten years are about sharing our experiences for the benefit of all, ensuring that as many K12 students as possible experience “growing up at the Flynn” the ways ten years of IAA students have. Congratulations and happy tenth birthday, IAA!


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