History

U.S. News & World Report again placed VSAA among the best public high schools in the nation as part of its annual ranking. VSAA was declared 10th in the state and 357th in the nation and received a gold medal.

Vancouver School of Arts and Academics received the Silver Award in U.S. News and World Report’s listing of Best High Schools for 2009.

Vancouver School of Arts and Academics was selected to receive a $376,000 Washington Sustainable Schools Grant to make its building environmentally friendly. Work began in summer 2007 and continued during the 2007-08 school year. To minimize disruption to learning, two doublewide portable units were used as temporary classroom spaces.

Vancouver School of Arts and Academics was recognized as a No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon School for 2005 by the U.S. Department of Education. Then-Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings presented the award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

VSAA, Fort Vancouver High School and Thomas Jefferson Middle School were chosen to receive $5,000 grants to create artwork for the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark's expedition. Part of the Confluence Project, the student artwork complements seven works of art by Maya Lin.

The International Network of Performing and Visual Arts Schools presented Vancouver School of Arts and Academics with a New and Emerging School Award.

The school expanded to include its first senior class.

Vancouver School of Arts and Academics opened in fall 1996 for students in sixth through 11th grades. The school was one of five selected nationwide to receive a $250,000 research grant from the College Board and the Getty Center for Education in the Arts.

Remodeling began on the former Shumway building.

A ceremony honored Shumway as it ended 66 years as a junior high school. It was remodeled before reopening in fall 1996 as a magnet school for the arts. Vancouver Public Schools was awarded a $750,000 Building for the Arts grant to help renovate the Shumway building.