Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > November > 13
Monday, November 13, 2006
The Stivers dilemma
(Stivers freshman Danielle Snyder pickets Wednesday’s board meeting)
At Wednesday’s school board meeting, a group of Stivers School for the Arts students came out to protest the board’s proposal to cut hours for adjunct faculty who teach private music lessons at the school.
This proposed cut is a good example of the difficult choices faced by the board, and Mary McCarty’s Sunday column did a nice job of capturing the view of students and their concerns about how such a cut would affect their learning.
Stivers is one of Dayton’s highest performing schools, with test scores that rival well-regarded suburban high schools. Under the dual leadership of Liz Whipps, who runs the arts programs, and Principal Erin Dooley, Stivers marries academic and arts instruction together.
Arts students there can take private one-on-one lessons from their instrument teachers, who usually are professionals who teach as adjunct faculty. In the proposed cuts for January, the board tentatively plans to eliminate those lessons.
Cutting adjuncts is a tough call, but they ended up on the list of reductions in part because those one-on-one lessons are viewed as essentially “extras.” In looking for places to cut, administrators sought to avoid reductions that would affect the academic classroom. Music lessons traditionally are arranged/paid for by families outside of school. The same rationale was behind the elimination of sports like soccer and swimming — activities that kids can still get elsewhere on their own dime.
Those ultimately were viewed as extras when compared with, say, assistant principals and reading and math coaches, both of which administrators fought hard to save. The priority was on the general classroom. Next year’s proposed reduction for Stivers —- another 25 percent of adjuncts — is a much deeper cut that I’m told the board has more qualms about. But that decision can be avoided if the levy passes.
The counter argument on the private lessons is that they are part of what makes Stivers great and unique and that messing with the district’s most successful academic program could be a very bad idea. Plus, the estimated $100,000 cost savings is pretty small (Cutting 10 elementary school assistant principals, by comparison, would save nine times as much). And, whether its music lessons or soccer or swimming, the simple reality is many Dayton kids can’t afford to do it own their own.
In Mary’s column, Superintendent Percy Mack said everything possible has been done to avoid cutting the classroom. What’s your view? Do private music lessons qualify as “classroom” cuts or are they, in fact, “extras?”
(Image credit: Ron Alvey, DDN)
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