School Beat: SFUSD’s Arts Education Master Plan Launched

by Antigone Trimis, 2006-10-19

“The health of a nation, a society, can be determined by the art it demands” Edward Albee, playwright

On September 28, 2006, Mayor Gavin Newsom and Interim Superintendent Gwen Chan announced the completion of San Francisco Unified School District's (SFUSD) Arts Education Master Plan and the commencement of its implementation in San Francisco’s public schools. This historic partnership between the district and the City was made vivid with the launch of the Master Plan at San Francisco’s Performing Arts Library and Museum (SFPALM), a local gem of an institution where San Francisco’s performing arts history comes alive through a multiplicity of exhibits, performances and educational programs.

The plan’s vision was beautifully articulated by student performances, including a quartet from Lowell High School, SOTA H.S. students performing an excerpt of Seamus Heaney’s “The Cure at Troy,” and Dr. George Washington Carver Academic Elementary School’s choir performing “I Am Somebody,” while the Museum was adorned with colorful quilts created by Claire Lilienthal students.

There was not one person present who had not played a role in bringing the Master Plan to life, including Supervisor Tom Ammiano who was instrumental in dreaming up Proposition H. And all present, SFUSD administrators, principals, teachers, students and parents, along with arts providers, artists, funders and civic leaders, San Francisco Arts Commissioners, members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and San Francisco Board of Education, have a stake in the plan’s success and are called upon to be its stewards.

The day was proclaimed Arts Education Day in San Francisco by Mayor Gavin Newsom and in the afternoon the Third Annual Arts Resource Fair produced by the SF Arts Providers Alliance, Parents for Public Schools, Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services, SPARK-KQED, SFUSD and the SF Arts Commission at the San Francisco Symphony, was widely attended by parents, teachers and arts educators.

The arts celebrate our creativity by allowing us to experience life fully, to think deeply, to ask questions and to make something new reflecting our own interpretation of ourselves and of the world around us. SFUSD’s Arts Education Master Plan calls for a sequential, comprehensive arts education program that reflects the high quality of San Francisco's artistic landscape in the areas of dance, drama, music, visual arts and literary arts making the arts a part and parcel of the curricular day by recognizing their value. Its guiding principle is that all students deserve both access to and equity in arts education and each school community, no matter the neighborhood or academic emphasis, will be expected to embrace the notion that each and every student must be provided with the arts as an integral part of the academic day.

The Master Plan sets the course for the future in areas ranging from curriculum and assessment to staffing issues and the building of administrative leadership in the arts, while stressing the significance of partnerships and collaborations with the arts and education community. The Visual and Performing Arts Department (VAPA) will play a key role in shepherding the plan forward.

The Arts Education Master Plan builds upon existing programs such as the Elementary Arts Program and the Elementary Instrumental Music program, as well as the work of both credentialed arts specialist teachers and of arts providers, many of whom have been providing quality arts programming for our schools especially after the devastating cuts to schools’ arts offerings that followed the passing of Prop 13. The product of eight months of research, interviews, surveys and focus groups led by a Project Manager with the support of a Steering Committee representing all stakeholders, the Master Plan reflects the views of more than 1,500 students, parents, teachers, administrators, arts providers, and civic and business leaders.

Proposition H approved by San Francisco voters in 2004, became the catalyst for the development of the Arts Education Master Plan making it a funded mandate. The San Francisco Arts Commission, the San Francisco Foundation, the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, the San Francisco School Alliance and the San Francisco Unified School District, all supported the development and publication of SFUSD’s Arts Education Master Plan, while the extensive increase in arts education spending, programming, support and resources that the plan recommends will be funded largely by Prop H funds. Additional funding for the arts, such as the new State funding announced in recent months, will be aligned to the Arts Education Master Plan’s strategic plan.

Some of the priorities for 2006-2007 include the following:

l new Elementary Arts Coordinators at each elementary school site (the majority of them are on staff, paid through a stipend) will make sure the arts are connecting to each elementary school community in ways that serve students, parents and teachers;
l fifteen new positions in the arts at the middle school level (credentialed arts specialist teachers) hired in 2005-2006, are being maintained;
l for 2006-07, each school is receiving per pupil spending that can be used for arts materials and supplies, artists-in-residence or to partially fund a credentialed arts specialist teacher;
l elementary and middle schools receive $10.00 per pupil and high schools receive $20.00 per pupil;
l finally and most importantly, professional development and arts leadership for principals will be a priority this year in order for principals to impart the vision and spirit of the plan to each school campus as they work with district leadership, the Visual and Performing Arts office, site councils, teachers, parents, students and arts providers.

SFUSD’S Arts Education Master Plan will revitalize the education of our young citizens by capturing the diverse cultural and artistic energy of San Francisco, a city that is world renowned for its high artistic standards, love of the arts, and numerous high quality art teachers and arts providers. The San Francisco Unified School district and the City are partnering on a historic effort to bring back the arts for all our students AT EVERY SCHOOL, FOR EVERY STUDENT, EVERY DAY. In the words of Leonard Bernstein: “It’s the artists of the world, the feelers and thinkers, who will ultimately save us, who can articulate, educate, defy, insist, sing and shout the big dreams.”

Antigone Trimis is the Arts Education Master Plan Implementation Manager for the SFUSD. For a pdf of the Arts Education Master Plan visit SFUSD’s website: www.sfusd.edu.