Schools Return to the Drawing Board

WESTMINSTER — Karen Wiles is a music teacher. Or used to be, back when more schools had music classes.

After 26 years of teaching music appreciation, she was forced to take a third-grade classroom position in 1992 when the Westminster School District slashed its two music teacher positions because of a shrinking budget.

“Music and the arts are extremely important,” Wiles said. “They are so useful in language and skills development. Some of us were always fighting for these programs. But by the time the district finally eliminated the positions, I was just beat.”

Arts instruction began to dwindle in the early 1980s, after Proposition 13 rolled back property taxes and gutted school budgets. At the same time, growing emphasis on computer training and basic academic skills began to take up more and more classroom time.

But in Westminster, as in other districts across the county, the tide may be turning. After nearly two decades of scaling back programs in the arts, educators statewide now are pushing for more classroom time and resources for those subjects.

The state Department of Education formed a task force earlier this year to lobby the Legislature for more arts education. The commission has demanded more state funding for the arts and has drafted recommendations on how schools can incorporate the arts in the kindergarten through 12th-grade curriculum.

Locally, the Orange County Department of Education recently received a $13,000 grant to study the status of arts education in the county’s 27 school districts. The project, funded by the county’s Arts Council, will determine where the arts are lacking and how to help those schools improve.

But the path to rebuilding arts education is a struggle, supporters said.

In October, Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a bill that would have increased high school graduation requirements to one course in the visual or performing arts and one course in foreign language. Current law requires students to take one or the other.

In a written statement, Wilson said he did not sign AB 365 because the state is in the process of developing academic standards, and that “while neither foreign language nor art are among the subjects, it would be prudent to wait until standards are developed in other academic subjects in order that we may more clearly see where foreign language and art courses fit into the total equation.”

Proponents of the arts say that Wilson’s argument diminishes the value of the arts and their relationship to all subjects.

“I don’t think people would expect to teach English without showing students how to write,” said Charlene Gould, who teaches seventh-grade social studies, computers and theater at Vista View Middle School in Huntington Beach. “The arts is essential in delivering history, culture, the sciences.”

Gould, who also is part of the 60-member state task force, said other legislation supporting arts education is expected to be introduced next month.

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Meanwhile, many Orange County school administrators agree that arts instruction is part of a well-rounded education but say offering it is difficult when money, time and teachers are limited.

Since 1992, the number of new incoming teachers with majors in music or art has shrunk 38%, to a total of 482 statewide last year, state data show, reflecting the shrunken job market.

A number of districts allocate no general funds to the arts. Instead, they rely on money from their Parent-Teacher Assn., private donations and grants from local arts groups to provide visual and performing arts programs.

Anaheim City elementary schools, for example, receive grants from Disneyland to help pay for art instruction and materials for pageants and puppet shows. Fountain Valley schools invite performers from the Los Angeles Music Center to visit. Saddleback Valley Unified has linked up with the Philharmonic Society of Orange County for concerts and music instruction at its schools.

And even Laguna Beach Unified, a district nestled in an active artists community, depends on funds from its educational foundation and parent groups to keep afloat dance and art programs that have been cut from the district’s general budget.

Phyllis Berenbeim, arts administrator for the county Department of Education, said because many districts cannot afford to pay for arts programs, local artist groups play a major role in providing them. But that’s not as good, she said, as a guaranteed curriculum.

“Arts education is in a holding pattern,” Berenbeim said. “It feels like Orange County districts are ready to make an upswing in the arts, but there’s no plan of action.”

Dennis Evans, vice chairman of UC Irvine’s education department, said the state’s current economic wealth has rekindled this interest in restoring arts education. But the pendulum may swing again, he said.

“It’s a vicious circle,” Evans said. “When the economy is good for school districts, they are able to offer more electives. But when things get tight, schools have to make cuts, and that especially hits the arts.”

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Another factor is the renewed emphasis on academic basics. The state recently adopted new math and reading programs, and schools officials said they are bogged down with implementing them.

“We have to first make sure that children are reading, writing and know their multiplication tables,” said Rosemary Herendeen, director of curriculum at the La Habra City School District, where one art teacher and three music instructors serve the district’s eight schools.

Wiles, the former Westminster music teacher, tries to accomplish both goals. On a recent day at Iva Meairs Elementary School, her third-graders practiced math drills through song. In harmonic unison, they sang the answers to 4 times 0 through 4 times 12. They did the same with division. Rhythms in songs help children remember better, Wiles said.

During a social studies lesson on the Cheyenne Indian Nation, Wiles taught them a tribal song so the children could better appreciate Native American culture. And in science, students learned the concepts of sounds and pitches by clanking onto various sizes of drums and jars filled with water.

“Smaller things usually make higher sounds,” said 8-year-old Lanei Carrillo.

The movement to increase arts programs is encouraging, Wiles said. But having been at a district that once had four full-time music instructors and now has none, she questions how lasting these state and local arts initiatives will be.

“All educators will say the arts are important. But when it comes to time and money, the arts get lost.”