Since June, the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees has been considering a plan to retool its Visual and Performing Arts program at its 16 elementary schools, a proposal that includes splitting art teachers between most schools.
The shift would be part of the district’s contractual obligation to provide release time for teachers.
The Trustees Wednesday approved a proposal to create a committee that will develop a five-year plan of how to better work art, science, physical education and music into the district’s release time.
They also agreed to allow school sites to determine how they will use monies from Proposition 28, a 2022 voter-approved law that provides arts funding to schools.
Release time, also known as teachers’ prep period, is a period in which they can grade papers, plan lessons and conduct other business necessary for their job.
In 2022-23, six of the 11 elementary school music teachers provided 45 minutes of music instruction to all elementary school students.
That gave teachers their allotted release time, and fit in with the district’s ongoing efforts to return music to the classroom after the 2008 recession-era budget cuts.
But with ongoing declining enrollment—and a commensurate need for fewer teachers on the horizon—the district looked for ways to fit in art, music, science and physical education classes.
Under a proposal presented in June by then-Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez, all students during the 2023-24 year would receive 45 minutes of music instruction during the release time, while kindergarten through second grade students would receive the same amount of art instruction. Students in grades 3-6 would receive science instruction.
That would require most certificated art teachers—who are currently stationed at one school—to split their time between two.
While Rodriguez said the proposal was also a way to make art instruction more equitable districtwide—some do not have their own art teachers—the proposal has not sat well with art instructors, parents and students, who say that the change would mean an integral part of their school community would be lost.
Rebecca Steinberg, who teaches art at Freedom Elementary School, said that she sees as many as five classes per day and approximately 500 students throughout the week.
Splitting between two schools, she said, would make it harder for teachers to prepare for classes and make sure they have sufficient supplies. And storing what they need for two school sites on a rolling cart is cumbersome and time-consuming, she says.
Worse, Steinberg says that lessening time at one school would take away the community that art teachers strive to provide for their students.
“Art is such an important subject, and a specialist can really bring that to life,” she said. “Students really, really want to find a safe place, and art gives them that.”
The trustees also approved a motion by Trustee Adam Scow to direct district staff to revisit the issue of how to revamp the art teachers’ schedules, and bring the discussion back to their Aug. 9 meeting.
“I think we can do better than this,” he said.
Prop. 28
The coming state funding adds another layer of complexity to the discussion.
The money cannot be used to pay for things already being covered by a school district’s general fund, but can be used to supplement programs that have been reduced, says PVUSD Chief Business Officer Clint Rucker.
But while the schools can choose how they spend the money, the limited amount coming every year is less than $100,000 at the elementary level and likely not enough to fund a full-time position, Rucker said.
Schools can, however, use their money to share teachers between school sites. A teacher under such a plan could teach at one school on Monday and Tuesday and at another on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
