The principal of P.S. 57 in East Harlem, Israel Soto, spoke to The New York Sun’s Julia Levy about the hard work of infusing his school with music and art – and, in the process, creating an “atmosphere of success.”

Q. What was the arts program like when you got here in 1999?

A. We had a minimal arts program. We had several community-based organizations that were working with the children, but never an arts program of this intensity.

Why did you want a change?

I learned how to play trombone when I was in high school. I was involved in a chorus when I was in elementary school. And I know how exciting that was, and how that helped me to build my self-esteem. In high school, I was an average student, but when I started learning how to play trombone, it just built my confidence to the level that I started to excel in high school, and I gained confidence and friends, and as a result, because of this positive image I had of myself, my academic achievement improved and I just became an overall better person. I wanted to give my children all of the opportunities that I had and all of the opportunities that communities and neighborhoods that are more affluent have.

So, we can assume that most of your students aren’t getting private music lessons?

We’re living in a poverty-stricken area, particularly at P.S. 57, where approximately 98% to 99% of my children are eligible for free lunch. So the probabilities that these children would take private music lessons are far-fetched. The school becomes the avenue, the vehicle, where we can instill a love of music and of culture.

How did you go about turning a school with “minimal” arts into a place with hallways and classrooms full of art and music?

Help! Help. Asking for help. Getting people involved. Calling organizations. My name is –, I’m the new principal at Public School 57, I need your help to turn this school around. We can never do this alone. So we started with making phone calls, finding out, researching which programs were out there. The 92nd Street Y was already in place. … I shared with them my vision and my dream. We started planning. We wanted to have a music program that really made a lot of sense. We wanted some things that would go deep, that would have a logical sequence that we can build upon each year.

What’s happened since then?

Now we have a school chorus. We have a school band. … We have integrated into our program a xylophone program for the third grade. We have a visual arts program. I hired a licensed visual-arts teacher, who is more focused on early childhood. We want to begin with early childhood to instill the love of the arts. … Also I have a licensed music teacher. … We also work with United Way, and they’re the ones that fund the artist, Taino Traveso, who has been working with the parents.

Tell me about this year’s school theme.

The theme of world communities involves the parents, teachers, artists, everyone together. There has to be a common thread. That common theme involves the entire building. The students do their research, they read books, the teachers do read-alouds, they study authors from a particular country, they see films, music. Case in point, the first floor, since it’s early childhood, it’s myself, my family, my community. The second floor is studying communities in New York City. You will see Chinatown, Harlem, el Barrio. Some are doing research on the renaissance in Harlem because it is highly connected to what we’re doing in music and the arts. And the third floor is world community: kids study Japan and Asia and Africa, and everything is based on and connected to the curriculum in social studies. So there’s an alignment.

How far do you get with just what the city gives you – the Project ARTS money?

You know that is never enough. It’s never enough, particularly if you’re dreaming big. I was asked a question. [Our principal for a day] asked, “Mr. Soto, what is your greatest challenge?” And my reply was having a dream of excellence. When kids do not have enough success stories around them, this just becomes an obligation – “I have to go to school because I have to go to school, but I don’t know why” – and so we begin to teach children to set goals, to have their dreams, to have a plan, to be consistent in their calling. This is what we teach them: stay in there, believe in yourself that anything you decide to do is possible.

Have the programs you’ve implemented impacted student performance?

In 1999, approximately 6.6% of my fourth-graders were meeting the standards in their fourth-grade [English Language Arts] and math. Math was even lower, I believe. Today, in ELA, over 42%, and in math, even higher. My math scores in fourth grade are even higher, at 51%.

Were the academic gains the result of the arts program?

I think there is a direct correlation when you start combining all of the areas that we’ve incorporated: an improved curriculum, a curriculum that is aligned, strong teachers, the integration of the arts, community support. There are so many variables. There are so many intricate things involved in moving a school forward that it’s not just one particular entity, one particular area. It’s when you put things together and the way that it’s aligned. People are talking the same language. And you begin to establish in everything that you do an atmosphere of success, an atmosphere of academic rigor, and an atmosphere of professional collegiality, where teachers are talking and sharing the work. So it’s not just the arts. It’s not just one thing. It’s difficult to isolate things, but when you bring all of these components together, it creates an atmosphere where children can enjoy success and feel good about it.

How do you ensure that everyone is on the same page?

I was just determined to do something special for my kids and bring people in that believed in it, starting with the assistant principals. When I hire teachers, we talk about this. How do they feel about the integration of the arts? I feel that a successful building largely depends on everyone believing in the school’s core values. If the teachers believe in that, they’re going to encourage it, they’re going to support it. If your assistant principals believe in it, they’re the ones basically that have a large responsibility in helping me set the school’s agenda, and last but not least the parents. If the parents understand, if the parents believe it … there are rippling effects of that.

So what’s next?

Are we there yet? By no means. No. No. No. We are just starting. We have a long way to go. Our ultimate goal is for P.S. 57 to be an oasis of excellence in Harlem, an oasis of excellence. We often talk about “yes, we have gone up.” If you have 41%, my question continues to be, “Are we doing enough for the 59% that haven’t made it?” That’s why we still have a long ways to go.