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A plan to eliminate the directors of art and music may end up costing the school district more than the $250,000 the budget-cutting measure would save.
Several arts groups that supply the district thousands in free services, equipment and expertise say they have no desire to support a district that thinks so little of the arts.
"We're really just getting started, and if they get rid of (those) positions, my board is probably going to say, 'Let's go someplace else,' " said Bennie Wallace, artistic director of Backcountry Jazz, a Greenwich-based organization that two weeks ago helped pull off a citywide youth concert and was in the process of securing free instruments and music lessons for city students.
The Board of Education meets Monday at 6 p.m. in Room 305 of City Hall to vote on a 2010-11 operating budget that is $19 million leaner than the one it approved back in March. Until last week, the board's finance committee was prepared to recommend a budget that closed two schools, Dunbar and Roosevelt. It has since backed off that unpopular plan, and last week acted on a new set of recommendations from Superintendent John Ramos that would not only cut the art and music directors' jobs -- which together cost $250,000 between salaries and benefits -- but more than 50 teaching positions, five assistant principals and their secretaries, 25 math and library aides and three family literacy coordinators.
Ramos told the board no one is happy about reducing art, music, physical education and libraries and that he valued them as much as so-called core subjects. Consideration had been given to reverting both positions to part time, with both teaching the rest of the time. When that was done in the past it didn't work out so well, Ramos said.
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Having no point persons within the district would be worse, countered Brett Raphael, artistic director for the Connecticut Ballet, which has worked in Bridgeport since 1981. "This action will cripple our efforts and cripple the delivery of arts in the city to the kids. To take the top people out is to completely handicap the whole thing," said Raphael. He estimates the arts community has leveraged several hundred thousand dollars in services into the district in recent years.
Members of the new Bridgeport Arts Initiative Task force, meeting last week at Housatonic Community College, spent a good part of the session talking about the proposed cuts. The group drafted a letter to Ramos and members of the school board calling on them to reverse the decision to eliminate the visual and performing arts directors. The letter called the situation "potentially catastrophic" for Bridgeport's youth.
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Performing Arts Director Tania Kelley and Visual Arts Director Ralph Buzzard both sit on the task force, which includes representation from two dozen arts and social service agencies including the Greater Bridgeport Symphony, Yale School of Music, New England Ballet and Bridgeport Public Education Fund.
Marge Hiller, director of the BPEF, said the plan to cut the positions doesn't even begin to make sense. "I am appalled," she said. "All the art and music organizations that are working in the schools with thousands of children will be shut out of the system. Without internal, experienced people to facilitate the organizing, school selection and vetting, these programs will end."
Yale's Music in Schools initiative has taken off at several city schools, said John Miller, a manager of community programs at Yale. "Where it's going is even more exciting ... We need Tania and Ralph in place to make sure these programs survive," said Miller.
One of the programs, Choice Books, connects music, art and dance to literacy skills. Students write a book, illustrate it, then a Yale grad student will write a piece of music to go along with the illustration, which is then performed by the Bridgeport symphony.
"It's really a great program," said Buzzard, who also works with groups like the Aldridge Museum of Contemporary Art to have artists help teachers develop creative lesson plans and City Lights, a downtown art gallery, who displays and critiques artwork of city students.
Internally, Buzzard said he and Kelley help with supplies, scheduling and instruction.
"We try and help art teachers infuse literacy, history and other subjects into their lessons," Buzzard said.
"I know they aren't doing it because they don't care but have to realize they are cutting a lifeline to a lot of outside help," said Wallace.
Chief of Staff Robert Henry said despite the cuts, all students will still get art and general music instruction, just less of it. If any additional funds become available, he said the art and music director jobs would be the first thing restored.
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