Steele Lane Elementary School in Santa Rosa has been named the 2010-11 Adopt-A-School campus in a partnership between the Arts Council of Sonoma County and the Steele Lane School Enrichment Foundation.

The program was launched today with a performance from students and a lineup of local leaders, including Sonoma County schools chief Carl Wong, Santa Rosa City Schools Superintendent Sharon Liddell, Santa Rosa City Schools trustee Wally Lowry and leaders from the local arts community.

The Adopt-A-School program was established by the Arts Education Alliance, an all-volunteer group that works under the umbrella of the arts council.

Total funding for the year-long program is $5,000 – an amount split between the school’s foundation and the arts council. A year long coordinator position that will help the school plan events, schedule visits from area artists and other events, is paid for by the arts council.

Organizers say the students at Steele Lane will have the opportunity to attend performances at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts; see performances from San Francisco Opera’s Opera a la Carte program, host visits from people from the Schulz Museum and the Sonoma County Museum.

Interim principal Steve Nielsen (Barry Kelly retired in August) said Steele Lane was chosen in part because many of the students there come from high poverty backgrounds.

“At the elementary level, often times, there are talents and we really don’t know whether children have them or not,” he said. “(With) high poverty, they are not going to be exposed to things at home. We are trying to give them that opportunity and broaden their horizons.”

“This is the kind of thing we are trying to do to augment the core curriculum,” he said. “We are going to get the opportunity to take kids to performances at Wells Fargo that we wouldn’t normally get to do.”

The launch ceremony was timed to coincide with a resolution by Congress to designate the second week in September “Arts in Education Week.”