Maintaining and Enhancing Art and Music Offerings

Statement of Problem and Opportunity

The arts are a fundamentally important part of culture, and an education without them is impoverished and leads to an impoverished society. Studying the arts should not have to be justified in terms of anything else. The arts are as important as the sciences: they are time-honored ways of learning, knowing, and expressing.

Faced with increasing financial pressure and state and federal mandates, many Massachusetts cities and towns have chosen to reduce or even to eliminate such arts offerings, such as painting, theater, and band. We believe that these enriching subjects are essential to a well-rounded academic experience.

Summary of Proposed Solution

We will treat the arts as core academic subjects that must be offered to all students at all grade levels.

Discussion and Implementation Plan

Newton has long held a reputation for excellence in the arts. Our high school theater productions are renowned. Consistent, equitable support for music, theater, and art beginning in our elementary schools is necessary to maintain our excellent high school arts programs. This school year, fees were implemented for elementary school instrumental music instruction. We should gather and assess data on the effects of these fees. If participation in music instruction has decreased due to fees, we should develop a fiscally-responsible plan to remove the fees as an obstacle to participation.

We should achieve consistency in arts electives among our schools not by eliminating offerings in some schools, but by improving our offerings throughout our system. Areas of excellence, be they specific teachers, students, or programs, should be encouraged to the fullest extent possible.

Music and art are core academic subjects. Music and art teachers need professional oversight, peer-review, and time to collaborate across schools and grades to maintain our excellent program. We will strongly support building time for peer-collaboration into each teacher’s weekly schedule.