By Kevin Hendricks, The Paper. — Before reading a single word, students at a pair of elementary schools in Rio Rancho begin by carefully examining the illustrations.
Melanie Rick, a national teaching artist with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, visited Enchanted Hills and Sandia Vista elementary schools TK DATE. They’re the only two Rio Rancho Public Schools campuses running the district’s arts integration program. Rick modeled lessons at Enchanted Hills and observed teachers leading their own at Sandia Vista, according to a district release.
Arts integration teaches an art form and an academic subject at the same time. Picture students dancing through evaporation, condensation and precipitation to learn the water cycle, said Kurt Schmidt, RRPS executive director of fine arts.
“It just adds more tools to the teacher’s toolbox,” Schmidt said.
Both schools adopted the model at the start of the 2025-26 school year, patterned after the Belmar School of Integrated Arts in Colorado. RRPS has partnered with the Santa Fe Opera through the Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education program since 2012. The partnership offers four to six workshops a year, open to any district employee.
Learn more about arts integration in RRPS:
- RRPS Fine Arts: rrps.net/page/fine-arts/
- Kennedy Center lesson plans and resources: kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/
- Contact Kurt Schmidt, RRPS executive director of fine arts: kurt.schmidt@rrps.net, (505) 962-1361
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