The pressure to improve academic standards at public schools brought unrest to Vintage High School on Friday, as students demonstrated against curriculum changes that may de-emphasize arts classes and other electives.

Administrators worked with students to avert a planned boycott of classes Friday morning, but Vintage High School students spent their lunch period protesting shifts designed to improve performance on standardized tests. As a next step, Vintage will host a student forum on the subject Thursday morning.

"For most of us, the art electives are the only reason we come to school," said junior Kristina McDonald, 17. "It's the only thing we have to look forward to."

McDonald was among students who left their morning classes and settled in the school's Little Theater, but later returned to class after hearing from Principal Eric Schneider.

Referring to herself and other concerned students, she said, "A lot of us are graduating and it would make no difference on the electives we take, but we're still doing it for the future and the new freshmen who we don't think should suffer."

Earlier this year, Napa Valley Unified School District officials announced curriculum changes to emphasize English and math, in part to help schools and students perform better on standardized tests.

State tests and the federal No Child Left Behind Act have had the effect of increasing accountability for academic progress in public schools. Through standard tests, schools, students and subgroups of students are tested to see if they are improving year over year.

While many welcome the emphasis on core academics, others fear students will have a less well-rounded education.

Vintage Principal Schneider said he understood the students' concerns, but emphasized that the school owes it to students, parents and teachers to strive for higher academic achievement.

Schneider said it is important to keep elective programs such as music and the arts strong, but said, "The priority has got to be academic program."

On Friday morning Schneider addressed the 50 or so students who had left their classes in protest. "When I met with the kids this morning, I clarified that they did not have permission to be out of class," Schneider said. "They were very cooperative."

McDonald, demonstrating at lunchtime, said, "A group of us skipped first and second period today, and we agreed to compromise and hold a forum on Thursday. I came today prepared for suspension, and if nothing good comes from Thursday's forum, then we'll be right back out here."

A balancing act

Several students made their views known at the lunchtime demonstration.

"I would like to come back here and be an art teacher. How am I supposed to do that if they're getting rid of the things I want to teach?" said Rachel Smith, 18.

She said administrators are adding classes at the beginning and end of the school day, but that doesn't work for everyone.

"In order to take the classes you want to take you would have to stay in school longer and take an early flight class or stay after school. Some parents might not want their kids leaving that early, or there may not be a bus available."

Smith, McDonald and other students wore T-shirts and buttons with bar codes on them, reflecting the mood that they feel they are being treated like numbers. The school's graphics department made the bar codes in response to the proposed changes.

Miguel Fernandez, 17, a musician, expressed concern for the future of the school band.

"The basis of band comes from the incoming freshmen. We teach them in sixth period. We won't be able to compete like we do if students can't take an elective until their junior year," he said.

Kevin Piguing, 13, practiced twirling the drum major baton during lunch. Piguing is an apprentice drum major. "It's not just about the fun that we have," he said. "Band has really taught me how to manage my time."

Elena Toscano, NVUSD's assistant superintendent of instructional services, said the district is not moving to eliminate elective courses.

"There's nothing that's planned," she said. "For some students, there might be some intervention classes that will prevent them from taking as many electives. Somehow, that's been interpreted as ceramics or shop classes being eliminated.

"If I'm a high school student and I'm struggling in reading or math, I need to take more classes in those subjects," Toscano said. "That won't leave enough time in the school day for that person to take as many electives."

The so-called "intervention" classes are designed to prepare students to pass standardized tests such as the Academic Performance Index tests.

Schneider said Friday that Vintage administrators initially believed the school's API scores had improved over prior years, but recently found out last year's scores showed a slight drop.

"Our API is actually down this year," he said. "That is a startling piece of information."

Schneider said he doesn't want students falling behind.

"If a student is below grade level in reading, we have real responsibility to help them get caught up. If we don't do something they might never get caught up. This is their one shot."

Schneider doesn't think the near-boycott is acceptable, but praised students for wanting to tackle the issue, which has been the subject of recent faculty discussions.

"To their credit, once we told them that we created a student forum, they said 'OK, that's what we want,'" he said. "The protest was real and I applaud the kids for their understanding of civil disobedience. I like kids to feel like they have a voice. We've got kids who are well behaved and care a lot about their education and want to be involved."

Schneider would like to see a balance between intervention programs and electives. "I don't want to lose any arts programs. We have not lost any arts programs or arts classes. It's a fear that some of the kids have."

But, said Schneider, "We're in an accountability era in education, and it's not going away."

The student forum is scheduled for Thursday during fourth period. Superintendent John Glaser and members of the school board will be on hand to listen to the students and answer their questions.

Register photojournalist Greg Hess contributed to this story.