Budget Cuts Affect Music, Arts. At Churchill High School, potters’ wheels sit unused inside a dark room. At a number of schools in town, stages are dark because reduced funds have shuttered performing arts programs. And at most of Eugene’s elementary schools, students get music instruction for just a quarter of the year. Participating in art and music classes teaches children to make good judgments, solve problems and celebrate multiple perspectives, advocates say. It strengthens the learning environment and provides the spark that keeps some students coming to school. Bay Area Art Classes with Degree Program Information. Art Programs Offered Undergraduate Tuition & Fees. California campus San Francisco Program Info. Areas of study you may find at San Francisco State University. Stay up-to-date with Family Programs Newsletter. ABOUT LEARNING AT MoMA. Credits; Create art in hands-on workshops. Explore works of art in MoMA’s galleries, then use your experience as inspiration for art-making in the. Cut artistic pieces with this amazing CNC Plasma Cutting Table. Home Projects Press Release Machine Specs Owners Login Contact. Detailed Metal Art Projects. Fine arts programs being cut at schools across Western Mass. The loss of one art teacher in the 1,220-student Gateway Regional District means elementary children will not have formal art classes. Art and music programs in public schools provide much more than a break from academics or a fun extracurricular activity. According to the advocacy organization Americans for the Arts, arts education can help kids to stay in. But budget cuts in 4. J, like those nationwide, have consistently slashed music and art programs to the point that in many schools, they’re a mere shadow of what they once were.“We have lost our depth and breadth of what we can offer,” says Lance Eagen, an art teacher at Churchill. We’re not ignoring that right side of the brain, but we’re certainly underserving that side of the brain.”Today, 4. J has roughly half the art and music teachers it had a decade ago. In 1. 99. 1- 9. 2, the district had 1. FTE) art teachers; this year, the district has 8. FTE. Eleven years ago, 4. J had 3. 0. 7 FTE music teachers; this year, there are 1. FTE. Nine weeks a year. The district decided this year to provide music specialists — as they’ve done with physical education specialists — to each elementary school for nine weeks a year. Each school’s administrators then decided how many teachers taught which subjects, leading to difficult choices between including subjects such as art and music and increasing class size and reducing class size at the expense of art and music. Wide variability among schools resulted, with some students getting no music and art at all. This year, students get nine weeks of music, as they get nine weeks of PE. He notes that while it’s good that all elementary schools get some music instruction during the year, “this is far from the ideal.” When he taught at Parker Elementary and saw every student every week year- round, he says, he was able to “just scratch the surface.” Today, with just nine weeks of music, “there is a limit to what can be covered.”Whether students get music the other weeks of the school year is up to individual classroom teachers. They’re not required to offer music because, according to Sara Cramer, 4. J’s director of elementary education, music isn’t required by the state. At the elementary level, art is not included in the nine- week program and is taught by classroom teachers as they are able, often as part of the school- day curriculum. But these programs can’t make up for the absence of year- round, on- site art and music teachers. At the upper levels. At middle and high schools, each school decides how to staff art and music. Administrators are under pressure to boost scores in core subjects like math and language arts, so music and art often find their way to the chopping block. The result in many schools: Classes in applied arts are gone, along with wood and metal shops, drafting and ceramics. Churchill and North Eugene have lost their orchestra classes. Middle- school strings classes have been cut. The district no longer has a choir in every middle school, according to teachers. At Churchill, budget cuts limit the number of sequential art courses. Both Churchill and South Eugene used to have three full- time art teachers; now Churchill has 1. FTE and South has 0. Many of the teachers who remain commute to multiple school buildings daily, Mudd says. Theater programs at many middle and high schools have also been cut back. The exception is at South, where parent and student support has allowed the performing arts program to continue. Some schools cope with cuts by charging for programs that were once included in the curriculum. James Monroe Middle School stages a talent show as an after- school activity. Last year, students were asked to pay $5. We had a fee waiver form for kids on free and reduced- price lunch,” remembers Steve Robare, who taught music at Monroe last year. Two kids told me outright that they wouldn’t ask their parent to fill out the form because they didn’t want to make their parent feel bad about money.” Robare ended up waiving the fee for all students and the show went on — but with half the number of acts as in previous years. Effect on students. Arts education has been found to produce many beneficial results. It helps close the achievement gap, “leveling the . And students who participate in the arts outperform those who don’t on virtually every measure, with sustained learning in music and theater leading to greater success in math and reading, and poor students reaping the greatest results. Cutting art and music programs takes a toll on students, educators assert. Richard Long, who taught band and orchestra in 4. J for 3. 9 years before retiring last year, is passionate about the value of music. Long says it’s easy to find information about music improving math scores, but in his experience the electives are “usually the things that are the most meaningful” for students. When you take the electives away,” he says, kids have to face the day without anything fun. That in and of itself creates an equity issue, Long and others say. Community support. Fundraising efforts and community organizations have stepped in to fill some of the gaps created by the district’s budget shortfalls. The Eugene Education Foundation (EEF) gave about 3. Molly Wittkop Lajoie, EEF’s executive director.“There has been an increase in requests” for arts and music, Lajoie says. There’s also a history of repeat requests — schools that ask for funds each year for ongoing projects — for example, Mc. Cornack Elementary School seeks an annual grant for its musical. This year, among its grants, EEF gave $1. In addition, Kennedy Middle School got $2,0. Roosevelt Middle School was given $2,0. These grants provide a spark that helps ignite a lifetime of learning,” Lajoie says. They “help support students where that spark could be the excitement of singing in the choir or playing an instrument or performing in a play.”Donations to EEF come from members of the community and are especially important for art and music, says Lajoie, at a time when these programs aren’t provided in schools. One EEF- funded program is Artists in Residence. Liora Sponko, executive director of the Lane Arts Council, connects artists in the community with schools through Youth. Arts. She’s brought artists to Family School Elementary and Awbrey Park Elementary, among others, to teach children about dance, music, clay and ceramics. Money for the Artists in Residence program used to come from 4. J, but that funding ended in 2. Sponko says. When the nine- week music program was instituted this year, it represented a reduction from the elementary school’s previous year- round program. The parent- teacher organization raised $1. Lane Arts Council to provide music for the rest of the year, according to Sponko, bringing in musicians to offer programs on the fiddle, Hawaiian music, West African music and Latino music and dance. Sponko also oversees a pilot project in four schools that use art as a tool to teach other subject areas, such as science and math, through grants funded by the Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Arts Commission. Bridging gaps. But the programs Sponko helps provide are piecemeal, she says. Since 2. 00. 8, the group has offered strings classes before and after school in collaboration with 4. J; the district used to offer strings classes to fourth and fifth graders, but that program was eliminated in the early 2. Arts Umbrella is investigating ways to provide such classes during the school day, according to Michele Pound, the organization’s executive director. She lives with her husband and daughter in Eugene. To share ideas or stories about how the budget cuts in Eugene have affected your school or child, email Anne at shortchangingourschools@gmail.
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