Parents, students press NK school officials for art time

Parents and students are lobbying New Kent’s School Board, aiming to convince school officials to hire half-time art teachers for both of the county’s elementary schools. Their goal is for all students to have once a week art classes year round instead of the current practice of alternating nine-week grading periods at each school.

And school officials are in favor. Problem is as in years past, the art position could once again fall victim to the budget-cutting ax.

“It’s preaching to the choir. We want it,” school Superintendent Roy Geiger said after a delegation of parents and students appeared at the board’s Feb. 4 meeting to urge members to retain the art position in next year’s budget.

“[The art position] has been in the budget every year since I’ve been on the board,” said District 5 representative Terri Lindsay who has gone through five budget cycles. “Each year it’s been a last-minute cut.”

For now, half-time art teachers have been penciled in at both schools at an estimated salary plus benefits cost of $22,500 each. But budget deliberations are in the early stages, and school officials have yet to learn how much county money the Board of Supervisors will provide for next year.

The county’s contribution goes a long way toward determining which new teaching positions are funded and which get cut. In addition to art, School Board members are considering a dozen new instructional positions.

“All kids in New Kent deserve at least once per week art as a basic part of the curriculum,” parent Suzanne Lamberth told the School Board during the Feb. 4 meeting. “In this global economy, they need more than just basics. Art helps them think better.”

Margaret Snead, who claimed responsibility for inundating the board with letters from students in support of art, brought along her sons to voice support.

One, Thomas Snead, told the board, “I enjoy art very much. It’s fun. I hope to have it more. It’s great because you can express ideas.”

Kathleen Lysek, who has two children in New Kent schools, said, “My kids love art. They’re so excited for nine weeks and sad when it ends. They really want that continuity throughout the school year.”

Board chairman Joe Yates assured the speakers that the art position remains in the budget for now.

“If we have our way, it will stay in, but the money tree isn’t as big as we’d like it,” he told the group.

In other business, the board approved a 2008-09 school calendar that lists 183 teaching days and three built-in snow days.

Classes for students begin next year on Sept. 2 and conclude on June 16. Winter break starts at the end of the school day on Dec. 19 with classes resuming on Jan. 5. Spring break is April 13-17.

Board members, meanwhile, decided what to do with any unused snow days for this year. So far, schools have not been forced utilize any of the three make-up days due to bad weather.

If all three remain, students and teachers will get the Friday before Memorial Day weekend (May 23) off as well as June 16 and 17 at the end of the school year. If two remain unused, the two June dates will be removed, and if only one remains, May 23 becomes a vacation day.

Also, the board learned that the New Kent Educational Foundation is selling $100 sponsorships for seating that is being placed inside the new high school’s auditorium. Individual chair sponsorships are to be sold as a money-raiser to support high school programs and technology, identify student scholarships opportunities, and provide teacher grants, foundation chairman Alan Files told the board.

Sponsors’ names are to be placed on a “giving tree” to be erected in a prominent location inside the school, he said. Leaves on the tree will bear donors’ names.

“This is the New Kent Educational Foundation’s version of the No Child ‘Leaf’ Behind Act,” he quipped.

The foundation’s goal is to raise $70,000, Files said. A campaign to solicit donors is to run from April through July with the tree installation scheduled for September. The campaign is targeting current and future high school students, alumni, families in New Kent, businesses, and community groups.