Seattle Schools Community Forum

Got this from Facebook (via Leslie Harris) about kids and the arts via a guy named Darryl A. Chamberlain: We must always remember the importance of giving our best to our kids. Here is the Monti's Czardas played by The Kanneh-Mason kids. This is what happens when you are willing to get music lessons for your kids. I always tell anyone who will listen - but especially elected officials - that after class size, the arts seem to be the most important thing to parents for their children.   Mr. Chamberlain speaks of g etting music lessons for your kids which may be difficult for many parents (time, cost, getting your child there) but if we had more arts in our schools, that would be something most parents would be overjoyed to see. Not to start a fight but we were having a discussion on another thread about sports in schools.  Which would you rather see funded and finding the time for - sports or arts?

I just came across an article in the Capitol Hill Times (thank you former Board member, Kay Smith-Blum) about arts in Seattle Schools. You may recall that the district had received a Wallace Foundation grant to develop a district-wide vision for arts in Seattle Schools.  It was for $1M of planning which was great but the district didn't receive the follow-up grant from the Foundation for the implementation .  But I know this didn't stop Carri Campbell, the director of School and Community Partnerships at SPS and so, with the City's Office of Arts and Culture and the Seattle Foundation, the District started the Creative Advantage partnership.  They are also partnering with groups like the Seattle Art Museum, Arts Corps, Arts Impact, EMP and others. 

From Nick Licata's Office: I recently came across this interesting article ( http://www.studio360.org/2012/may/04/can-obamas-turnaround-arts-initiative-save-schools/ ) published by Studio 360 describing the Obama Administration's $14.7 million Turnaround Arts Initiative ( http://turnaroundarts.pcah.gov/ ). The initiative seeks to utilize arts education to improve eight of the nation's worst performing schools over the next three years. One can argue whether that is nearly enough to address our educational system's needs, but underlying it is a belief that I share: we need to go beyond testing students in reading, writing and arithmetic. That is a concern I had upon learning that none of the arts organization applicants for Families and Education Levy (F&E) 2012-2013 funding were deemed qualified to receive funding. Although other types of organizations were also not chosen because they couldn't guarantee measureable results, there was uncertainty over how t...