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The push for music and arts is coming from the parents of our most afluent children. Their children are doing well and can take on additional subjects like music and art. The BOE has to make a decision, do we focus attention on the top performers in the class ore the children strugling in the middle or the lower half of the class. It is a hard decision. I think the BOE should base their decision on what is bets for Guilford County. If they do this, they will choose to help those in the bottom half of the class.

Why cant the curriculum be flexible enough to accomdate both high and low acheivers?

Joe,

You are so totally off on this subject.... Poor
students only opportunity to experience Art and Music are in our public schools....Your affluent parents can afford outside classes.

Some seem to miss that we have students that go on to major in college with full scholarships in these areas..
These are academic and our entire community will suffer if we neglect these areas.

We had one student at our school earn a full scholarhip to Duke University and Carolina based on
his trumpet playing and music writing abilities.
He not only excelled in music , but he excelled in other classes also. Without the exposure that he had in school, he would not of had these opportunities. He did well in his academic classes,but he would never have had a "free" ride based on them alone...or attend college at all.

Good thoughts. Having a child really interesting in something is very important. It could be music or it could be art. However, I am concerned that some students want be able to get thru college in musice or art because they are unable to read and write at a level necessary to graduate. I agree, it is best for the child to have exposure to all disciplines. However, in the real world, we often have to make choices. It is ok for the school system to minimize art and music if that is what it takes for the child to have a good working knowledge of reading and writing. I agree, those that can should be exposed to all subjects. As I understand it, the plan is to reduce the amount of time devoted to art and music not eliminate it. I may be wrong.

Strong music, athletics and art programs have consistently been shown to reduce the drop out rate among minorities and children from low-income families. Moreover children who are involved in school music programs score higher on standardized tests -- particularly on the math segments.

How come the kids have to give up so much music art and gym just to be forced to take spanish. If we can force our kids to take spanish why can't we make immigrants learn English!!

Joe: The time that is being taken away from music, art and phys ed is *not* going to teaching the basics. Rather those programs are being slashed (in some cases kids will only have 5 music classes per year) to make room for mandatory spanish classes.

Each leadership team at individual schools decides how to do electives. I do know that Spanish was 'given' to the specific schools, not all; however who gets cut at those schools was up to the leadership team.
Every parent should know who their representatives are on that team and contact them. Some schools use media as an elective, some us computer class, then art, music and PE. One each day gives the teacher planning.

It should not be a surprise to anyone that one elective a day equals 5 a week. Put Spanish in there once or twice and something has to go. I knew this would be a problem when it was suggested last year.

Joe:

What's up Joe? Aren't you usually on the side of the at-risk schools? These arts cuts were NOT done so they could do more reading/math, but to get Spanish back in the elementary schools again. It is not the "affluent" parents who are upset. That is the whole problem! BECAUSE the richest schools were NOT cut, this story got little or no press. 87% of the most affluent schools (those with less than 30% of their students on free/reduced lunch) escaped the arts cuts altogether!

Two thirds of the schools in question were Title 1 schools. At these schools, many families don't even OWN a computer so it's pretty hard for them to read this blog, sign in, and post a comment. 10 of the 19 affected schools are ones in which 80-100% of the students are on free/reduced lunch. Let's put that in perspective. If you had a class of 24, less than 5 could afford to buy the $2 cafeteria lunch!

(NCDPI 2006-07 free/reduced lunch percentages)

These schools had to either give up half of their art and music time, or else trade in much needed teacher assistant positions in order to "buy back" their lost arts time. Some schools were already stretched thin with 1 assistant serving as many as 8 teachers. They just didn't have much left to "barter" with.

How did this happen? The budget said every elementary school would have 4 specialists. So in 45 or so of the schools, they got PE, Art, Music, and their choice for the 4th special. Some chose a second PE class each week, some got a computer teacher, and some chose to get a Spanish teacher. But it was the principal and/or leadership teams that made that choice.

In the other schools principals were told that 2 of the specialist positions HAD to be used for Spanish. That left only 2 positions to split between Art, Music, and PE. So in these schools, children (even kindergarteners as well as the kids in the mentally handicapped classes) have Spanish twice a week, PE once a week, and then with what's left, they can get a bit of music and art. Some schools have a semester of art, and a semester of music, others are working on rotating schedules where they go for a few weeks between art or music classes. That's what is upsetting the parents who know about it.

Another bad decision by the Guilford County Board of Education. They have plenty of experience in making bad decisions, but still, it's disappointing.

Art and music are part of any well-rounded education. They aren't "extras". Plus, as has been mentioned, kids who are involved in arts and music are much more likely to be engaged in their other classes.

And the kids who will be hurt by this reduction in art and music are the kids who can least afford it. Well-to-do parents can simply pay for extracurricular arts and music activities, or they can pull their kids into private schools.

The bottom line here is that the Guilford County Schools have adopted a "teach to the test" approach. The focus is entirely on propping up reading and math test scores, not on providing a true quality education.

I can see I am not up to date on this subject. The people who want change have made a good case. But could not the BOE see these problems before the decision was made?

On many college entrance exams and during college performance tests, music students in particular outscore almost every other discipline. Certainly much higher than PE, Business or..egads...Education. As for art students, many are quite on the ball academically; the vast number of highly successful professional artists (I am mainly speaking of fine arts), of which there are very few to start with, did not complete liberal arts degrees, but attended the equivalent of a music conservatory. Yet, being conversant and agile in the creative thought demanded of arts of all types has been shown to pay huge dividends in all walks of life, as well as personally. Many K-12 students would otherwise quit trying and even attending school were it not for the joy they get creating art and music.

A nation, state or county/city that devalues the art experiences of its youth paves the way for disillusioned youth and rampant careerism, emptiness and underachievement. Most major employers of high-tech, biotech and other up-and-coming industries put tremendous consideration into the arts opportunites for children, families and employees into their decision about relocation or expansion.

Continue to cut these areas, and the area will certainly wither on the vine in the not-too-distant future.

And...the nightmare continues from elementary to middle school. Now, due to the GCS "90-minute mandate" middle school students may receive NO MORE than 90 minutes per day in elective classes (including classes such as P.E., visual and performing arts, foreign language, life skills, etc.) In previous years, students could select 3 encore classes per day such as P.E., Foreign Language, AND Music/Arts. Now, choices and elective times have been slashed to accomodate the "90-minute mandate."

There is a simple solution to address the needs of ALL learners nad levels of proficiency...
Allow each middle school 3 elective periods daily of 35-40 minutes each. Proficient students (level 3's and 4's) could select 2 elective such as music and foreign language, PLUS their p.e. class daily. Non-proficient students (level 1's and 2's) would have p.e., a remediation period, AND the opportunity to experience an arts/foreign language class. (Remember, these are the students least likely to have a access to private music lessons, evenings out to the symphony, trips to art galleries, etc.) This format would address the N.C. state mandate of p.e. time, remediation to students in need, as well as allow ALL students opportunity for artistic enrichment. Who knows, maybe even a scholarship to Julliard along the way!

Why has the arts curriculum specialist position been cut from GCS? In the Charlotte-Mecklenberg schools, central office administration includes a Director of Arts; a curriculum specialist for music; and a curriculum specialist for visual arts! Now GCS has eliminated the ONE position they had to cover all these areas. In the Greensboro/High Point area we have two highly-energized Arts Councils, fine universities-one with the largest School of Music in 6 surrounding states, a fantastic symphony orchestra, stage/theater events, etc. But now...no GCS arts curriculum specialist in our own schools. Reprehensible.

We now see that GCS is "looking for" all the students who have not shown up for high school this year. Could it be that in all this "test-taking" mania we have stopped valuing students as humans, neglected the numerous other "intelligences" that we know exist, and now those students are seeking acceptance in other places? Hmmmm...let's think where that could be?

This was not a BOE decision. Non-negotiable mandates came from the administration.

Dear AT
I agree, making those decisions is not the boards duty, however they do make the funding decisions and they do oversee Dr. Grier.

Joe:

Thanks for listening with such an open mind!

You asked an excellent question -- "But could not the BOE see these problems before the decision was made?" When Darlene Garrett mentioned it on TV, I think she described it as "not exactly forthright". Here's what the budget request said:
1. Increase the planning time for teachers by providing four planning periods weekly for an average of 40 minutes per period in the areas of art, music, physical education.
2. Implement Spanish for two planning periods per week in elementary schools that feed into IB high schools. Those schools include: Alderman, Archer, Cone, Fairview, Foust, Gillespie Park, General Greene, Hunter, Irving Park, Jesse Wharton, Joyner, Lindley, Morehead, Murphey, Oak Hill, Oak View, Peck, Sedgefield, Shadybrook, Sternberger and Wiley.
(http://www.gcsnc.com/leadership/07-08%20Superintendent's%20Budget%20Message%20FINAL%204-12-07v2.pdf)

So, the BOE must have thought the Spanish was going to be extra, and that those schools would still get the same amount of Art, Music, and PE as the rest of the elementary schools in the county. Sadly, the cuts affect mostly underprivileged students. Studies show that these students have the most to gain from high quality art and music programs.

For more information on how art and music education benefits students, you might want to check out this site - http://www.artsednc.org/

Yes, I believe there was some confusion on the board about the Spanish program's tie in to the arts and I don't recall the board spending much time talking about the program at all (much of their attention was focused on K-3 class sizes, social workers, etc.) However, the board did know about the arts coordinator position because that was one position recommended by Grier to the board to be cut.

Perhaps the Board should have created an exploratory committee on how best to integrate foreign languages. Members might have included experts in elementary and middle school language, music and arts education. We are gifted with many such persons here in Guilford County. Dr. Constance McKoy and the folks at A+ education leap to mind immediately.

Such a committee could make recommendations on scheduling and programing in such a way as to take advantage of the ways in which the various disciplines complement each other.

For instance, in a recent article in Nature Neuroscience researcher Dr. Patrick Wong and colleagues at Northwestern University reported on their research that found that students with strong musical education backgrounds learn Mandarin Chinese and other tonal languages with greater facility and at a greatly accelerated rate, compared with other children.

Co-researcher Dr. Nina Kraus said that these findings mean that schools wanting children to do well in languages should hesitate before cutting music programs. (Dr. Kraus also pointed out that music programs also help children with language problems.)

I'm not an educator, but it certainly seems that some planning and thought by education experts in the relevant fields should be elicited before major programming changes are enacted. Fortunately the year is just beginning and it is not too late to correct these missteps.

The new Spanish was implemented to make sure each core teacher had planning, however if they are just substituting Spanish for music, or art how does that create additional planning time? Wouldn't Spanish have to be in addition to the electives already? If so that takes time out from core classes.

Debora:

Here is an excerpt from the document, "Q & A On Implementing H.B. 1151, S.L. 2006-135,
Planning Time and Duty-Free Lunch for Teachers" found on the website for the NC School Boards Association:

What options are available for budget flexibility to assist in reallocating resources?

While no resources have been allocated for this purpose, the school improvement team can look for opportunities to reallocate existing resources. By law, the local board must provide maximum flexibility to schools in using funds to accomplish goals related to student performance. (G.S. 115C-105.25(a)) In addition, the law allows certain transfers of funds between allotment categories if included in the school improvement plan. Those that might be related to providing duty-free lunch or instructional planning include the following:
* * *
Positions allocated for classroom teachers may be converted to dollar equivalents to contract for visiting international exchange teachers with the conversion at the statewide average salary for classroom teachers, including benefits. (G.S. 115C-105.25(b)(5a))

end quotation

n'est-ce pas?

Of all the education blog entries this month, this one had the largest number of responses (including the blogs on gang activity, school bonds, and the horrible event at Andrews last week.) This is obviously about something greater than just insider chat.

Our passion for and commitment to the cultural arts has always been a matter of pride to us here in Guilford County -- it is part of who we are as a community. Recent devastating cuts to the arts by our elected representatives on the board of county commissioners and the board of education have hit our community like a shockwave.

The buzz surrounding these developments is heard in our schools, college classrooms, board rooms, and non-profit organizations throughout the county. Watch this space.

I am doing a college term paper on the topic of budget cuts in the music and arts departments, and the consequences it has on our students. I am looking for any personal stories that show the effects the cuts have on the school, students, and staff.

I am doing a college term paper on the topic of budget cuts in the music and arts departments, and the consequences it has on our students. I am looking for any personal stories that show the effects the cuts have on the school, students, and staff.