Popular art and music programs at schools threatened by looming
budget cuts
“My life without painting would be like a pen with no ink.”
Joceline Gutierrez, a seventh grader in Amber Woodward’s painting class at South Valley Middle School, made a bold statement about the void that would be left in her life if she couldn’t paint. Like a pen with no ink, her life, without painting, would have no point, no meaning.
In the cavern that Woodward has transformed from a wood shop to a vibrant art studio, middle schoolers like Gutierrez prepare themselves for futures as photographers, painters and free thinkers. For five years, Woodward has worked passionately to build an arts program that serves more than a fifth of South Valley’s students. About $5,000 worth of art supplies sit in her closet and even more is waiting at the county office of education, in place to serve the program, she said.
The supplies are there. The facilities are there. Among the Van Gogh prints, hand painted tiles, even a trash can that screams school pride, students are clamoring to sketch, sculpt and express themselves. But they may have no teacher to lead them.
By proposing the elimination of a period from the middle school day, school administrators hope to cut almost $1 million from a budget they have to trim drastically and quickly. When the governor released his proposed budget in January, school districts throughout California began preparing for the worst but hoping for the best. They were hit with devastating numbers. Numbers that called for a $4.8 billion cut to California’s public schools, the most significant cut in funding in almost 30 years. Those numbers translated to a $5 million cut to the Gilroy Unified School District budget. For Woodward, those huge numbers mean one thing: she might be out of a job.
The cuts proposed at the Feb. 7 board meeting eliminated about two dozen full-time teacher positions. A definite decision will have to be made by March 15, the deadline for distributing layoff notices to teachers.
It’s hard to come in and teach when you might not have a job next year,” Woodward said. “It’s very daunting to have that hanging over your head.”
A series of proposed cuts to the visual and performing arts programs at the elementary and middle school levels could shave more than $1.5 million from the budget, according to the proposed list of cuts to the budget presented at the Feb. 7 board meeting. Woodward and her fellow music and art teachers think that money might be better saved elsewhere.
“This would be the first slash in music, band and choir Gilroy’s ever seen,” said Tom Brozene, band director at Brownell Middle School. “I understand why the cuts have to be but why hit the core of the school day? There are ways to make it work, creative ways.”
“If middle and elementary school music gets cut, this program won’t survive,” said Joey Fortino, band director at Gilroy High School. A faded black and white photograph of the 1934 GHS band is posted above the band room’s door. “As you can see, we’ve been around for a while!” he said, gesturing to the photo.
“We might as well eliminate the music program from high school if it’s not in middle schools,” Trustee Denise Apuzzo said at the Feb. 7 board meeting.
Fortino said that students have to pick up an instrument when they’re young to overcome later feelings of self-consciousness. “When you first start playing an instrument, you’re going to sound bad!” he said, adding that younger children don’t care about how they sound. “That starts to fade when you get older. You become too self-conscious about sounding bad.”
The music and arts program is an essential component of a high schooler’s day, Fortino said.
“If you can get them to care about school, they’ll do better, learn more,” he said. “Music is that connection for some kids.” One of his former students agreed.
“Any success I have experienced in my educational career is due in large part to my experiences as a student of music,” the GHS alumnus wrote in a letter to Fortino. “While I might go through my career without ever using the theoretical concepts I learned in my history and math classes, I will always use the practical leadership, improvisational, social and learning skills, learned in music classes, which shaped who I am. Music creates not only excellent students but excellent people.”
“Art to me is core,” Woodward said. “It’s not fringe. It teaches kids to think outside the box. We do all the subjects in this class – math, history, science. Art is the umbrella.”
The California state university system calls for one year of visual or performing arts at the high school level to satisfy its coursework requirement. Without establishing a basis of understanding at a young age, Woodward said that’s “like throwing a kid that can’t add and subtract into a calc(ulus) class.”
But Brozene still sees a ray of hope, he said. He is working with Board President Rhoda Bress on alternatives to cuts.
“The biggest thing to do is get a letter out to our governor and congressmen,” he said. “Ten percent across the board cuts are not acceptable. They’re just not.”
“I’m a strong believer in the arts and music,” Superintendent Deborah Flores said, prefacing her announcement of the proposal to eliminate the elementary school music program. “It’s very difficult for me to make this recommendation. I would not recommend this if we weren’t in the situation we’re in.”
The board is having a hard time wrestling with the numbers too, Bress said. She has seen an outpouring of concern from the community in the e-mails that fill her inbox every day.
“I agree with every single e-mail and I’m very encouraged by the response of this community,” she said. “I’m hoping it will translate into a grassroots effort that will have an impact. An educated person is one that’s been educated in the visual and performing arts and a good budget is not one that is balanced on the backs of our students. A good budget prioritizes public school education.”
Bress encourages the public to channel their efforts into effecting change from the top.
“We did not create this problem and we are being asked to solve it,” Bress said. “The solution is a revised budget from the governor.”
Big savers:
Reorganize district office administration, $389,000
Eliminate class size reduction for third grade, $480,000
Eliminate elementary music/physical education, $425,000
Eliminate k-8 instrumental music, $117,000
Reduce middle school day from 8 to 7 periods, $960,000
Increase high school class size from 32:1 to 33:1, $234,000
Eliminate in town bus stops, $270,000
Plus 28 other tentative cuts, $1,134,400
Total tentative cuts so far, $4,009,400
