Charleston County School of the Arts

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Charleston County School of the Arts
Established	1995
Type	public (magnet) middle and secondary
Principal	Myrna Caldwell
Students	approx 1,000
Grades	6–12
Location	1600 Saranac St., North Charleston, South Carolina, USA
Oversight	Charleston County School District
Campus	suburban
Mascot	Pegasus
Phone	(843) 529-4990
Website	soa.ccsdschools.com

Charleston County School of the Arts (commonly abbreviated SOA) is a public magnet school located in North Charleston, South Carolina in the United States. The school was started in 1995 by Rose Maree Myers and serves over 1,000 students in grades 6 through 12. Admission to SOA is based upon a competitive audition process in one of eight majors: Creative Writing, Dance, Instrumental Band, Strings Orchestra, Piano, Theatre Arts, Visual Arts, and Vocal Music.

Currently, the school has the fifth-highest SAT scores in the state. The school's Advanced Placement scores are the highest in the school district for those schools where 15% or more of the students are enrolled in AP courses. Students may select from AP Calculus, AP English Literature, AP Music Theory, AP Statistics, AP Studio Art, AP U.S. History, and AP World History. Seventy-five percent of enrolled students score 3, 4, or 5 each year on the AP exams. Students in the 2004-2005 AP Music Theory class had the highest AP scores in the world for schools of SOA's size. The first SOA graduating class (2001) scored a 100% passing rate on the AP English Literature exam, and SOA has continued to maintain a 92% passing rate in English through 2007.

The Chorale has sung at Carnegie Hall. The jazz band is considered one of the best in the nation. More creative writing students win the annual Scholastic Writing Award than students in any other program in the nation. Two students, Sara Saylor and Jessica Atkinson, have won Scholastic's grand prize (Jessica subsequently received endowments from such prominent figures as Chuck Palahniuk).

Some students attend the most selective arts colleges upon graduation including Juilliard, the Eastman School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Savannah College of Art and Design, and many of the most prestigious academic universities. Many remain in Charleston, too, and elsewhere in South Carolina.

The School of the Arts is growing fast - and outgrowing the space it currently occupies. The building itself is said to have originally been a military facility, built around the forties. It served several other schools before it became the home of SOA. Evidence of previous purposes is visible everywhere: the school's band classroom and its Black Box Theater were both converted from garages whose doors now serve as walls; there is a sign that says LAUNDRY next to the middle school Visual Arts room; and all but one of the entrances into the main building can facilitate only single doors, making it somewhat difficult to maneuver in and out between classes.

Controversy was stirred in the spring of 2007 when Rose Maree Myers, the school's founder, who had served as principal since the school's inception in 1995, was abruptly transferred by district administration to an advisory position based in the district headquarters. Many students, teachers and parents were outraged at the district's decision, which was carried out with a month or so remaining in the school year. Some people spoke before the Charleston County School Board in support of Ms. Myers. The district did not reconsider, however, and an interim principal was put in place to finish the year. The current interim principal is Myrna Caldwell, who taught 8th grade language arts at SOA and was assistant principal before taking her present position.

In the fall of 2007 U.S. News & World Report included the School of the Arts on its list of the top performing schools in the nation.