DeKalb County is changing the way it staffs schools next year to address concerns about imbalances in resources and to ensure every school will have an art and music teacher.
This year, 41 DeKalb schools, about 28 percent, had no art positions, and two schools did not have music positions, according to the district. Those variances and others have long been on the radar of school officials but were highlighted again recently during a districtwide rezoning, which closed eight schools and reassigned 6,000 to 7,000 students.
“I think the district is really taking a step forward in trying to address the equity issue,” said Marcus Turk, DeKalb’s chief financial officer.
Staffing levels at schools are determined through complicated state and local formulas that take into account the number of students, their educational needs and how they spend the school day. For example, schools get different dollar amounts for special-needs students than for those in traditional education courses.
Under the old system, DeKalb principals were given a pool of “points,” and they had the flexibility to determine what positions the points would be traded in for, provided basic staffing requirements were met. The new system sets up rules for which positions must to be filled, including art, music, counselor, assistant principal, media specialist and physical education.
Principals contacted for interviews about the new system said they first needed clearance from the district’s public relations officials. A spokesman from that office said generally principals and teachers don’t speak to media about policy that affects them.
Critics of the change like the idea of offering art and music in every school. They worry, however, that some schools, especially those with smaller enrollments, will lose the flexibility to staff according to the needs of the student population and will lose funding for other support positions such as academic specialists.
Parent Melissa Marion-Landais said Chesnut Elementary, where her children attend school, will end up with fewer resources after the staffing changes and the redistricting.
She said the plan will have the greatest impact at small schools like Chesnut, which will have about 500 students next year and will not earn enough positions through enrollment to shuffle staff as needed.
“For larger elementary schools, they have more flexibility in staffing because they earn more points,” she said. “Smaller schools cannot provide the same level of services simply because of the combination of the staffing formula and building capacity.”
In Gwinnett County, all schools have an art and music program, though local schools do have flexibility on how to allot staff in those subjects. Cherokee County also has music and art teachers in every school, citing a recent parent survey where 88 percent of respondents felt fine arts and music should be a budgetary priority, spokeswoman Carrie Budd said.
“Principals do have the option to request a different use for those allotments,” Budd said, “but none have made such a request.”
DeKalb officials recognize that this will be a transition year for schools but hope they can provide even more staffing consistency in the future in foreign languages, Advanced Placement and gifted instruction, and career and technology courses.
Retired DeKalb teacher Jacqueline Henry said the district is moving in the right direction by making sure fine arts are offered in every school. She spent nearly three decades as a teacher and remembers years when her school didn’t employ an art or music teacher. In those times, she felt so strongly about the benefits of arts education, she tried to work those subjects into the day using songs or creative projects.
But she doesn’t think children should lose out on other needed resources, either.
“I don’t think art and music should be funded in lieu of, it should be in addition to,” she said. “All of those services are critical to a child’s whole learning. If you put in music and art and take out that counselor, you’re eliminating a phase of education that’s important. You’re adding to the responsibility of teachers who may not be qualified to respond in certain ways.”
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