Chocachatti Elementary showcases arts magnet creativity with Disney production

At Chocachatti Elementary, Disney’s Dare to Dream Jr. was more than a school play. The production gave families a window into how the Brooksville magnet school folds arts, public performance, and practical learning into the school day, so students are not just memorizing lines but building confidence, stage presence, and teamwork.

A school model built around more than academics

Chocachatti Elementary School is a public magnet school in the Hernando County School District, and its identity is built around MicroSociety and Performing Arts. That means students spend part of the day in creative work while also learning business and entrepreneurship in hands-on ways, alongside the traditional basics. The school is located at 4135 California Street in Brooksville, with Nicholas Pagano listed by the district as principal and Jillian Minichino as assistant principal. Its school day runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4:10 p.m.

The magnet setup also shapes how families get in the door. Enrollment is not automatic, and families must apply through a lottery and/or portfolio process for the following school year. The application window typically opens in mid-October and lasts about a month, a reminder that this is a choice program with a defined entry path, not a neighborhood assignment school.

Disney on stage, and a school community behind it

The latest performance, Disney’s Dare to Dream Jr., was staged twice on April 9, once for students during the school day and again in the evening for families, alumni, and other community members. The story follows a group of Disney Junior Imagineers in training who have to identify their dreams and pass them along, and the production mixed Disney songs with original material written for the show. That combination gave the performance the feel of a school-wide project rather than a simple recital.

Principal Nicholas Pagano, staff members, teachers, and parents all helped make the production possible, and that broader support matters. At Chocachatti, the stage is not separate from the classroom culture. It is part of how the school presents itself to the community, and part of how students learn to speak, move, listen, and perform in front of others.

The children in the show made that visible in concrete ways. Fifth-grader Gatlin Squires, who played Buzz Lightyear, said he enjoyed the interaction with his scene partner, a detail that shows the social side of performance, not just the scripted side. Mila Prybyzerski, in her first show, said dancing was her favorite part. Sara Kurylo, who had appeared in other school productions before, talked about being part of the dancing, while Adalyn Danet, who played Moana, said she was not nervous about being the center of attention.

Those are the kinds of gains parents can see immediately. Students are learning how to hold a role, share the stage, work in sync with classmates, and stand up in front of a crowd. At a school built around arts and MicroSociety, those are not extras. They are part of the educational product.

MicroSociety gives the arts a larger purpose

Chocachatti’s arts work sits inside a longer-running MicroSociety model that reaches well beyond theater. MicroSociety says the school opened in Brooksville in 1999 as a K-5 Performing Arts MicroSociety magnet school and describes it as an A-rated Florida school that ranks in the top 10 percent of schools in the state. The model is designed to identify talents and creativity that might otherwise go unnoticed, while developing the whole child through classroom instruction and hands-on experience.

That broader approach showed up in a 2022 demonstration before the Hernando County School Board, when students, teachers, and administrators presented a program that had been operating for 23 years. The event included performance, gardening, raising animals in a 4-H program, broadcasting, culinary arts, and student government. Assistant principal Nick Pagano said at the time that the school’s roughly 750 students were being prepared for middle school, high school, and beyond, with the goal of college or work after graduation.

That is the institutional argument behind Chocachatti’s model. A school that teaches students to perform, lead, speak, create, and manage real responsibilities is not simply adding enrichment. It is building habits that carry into later grades and into civic life.

Why the model stands out in Hernando County

The strongest evidence that this approach has teeth is not just the applause after a performance. MicroSociety says that in nearby Brooksville, where the model was implemented, office referrals dropped by 69 percent and suspensions fell by 44 percent. For families weighing whether arts-centered learning can also support discipline and engagement, those figures are hard to ignore.

Chocachatti also has a track record of public productions. In 2018, the school staged Disney’s Aladdin, Kids with support from the Hernando County Fine Arts Council and through collaboration among teachers, parents, and students. That history suggests the school’s arts magnet identity is not a one-off showcase tied to a single season. It is part of a pattern.

For Hernando County parents looking at what a magnet school can actually change, Chocachatti offers a clear answer. Students get stage time, collaboration, and real responsibility. They learn to perform, to present, to work with others, and to handle public attention with growing confidence. In a district where many schools promise opportunity, Chocachatti’s model shows what that promise looks like when it is built into the daily routine.