Does every BPS student deserve a strong arts program? How about a counselor?
BPS students and staff raise basic questions during the budget debate
By Alain Jehlen
“I came here from Georgia,” said Victoria Massey. “When I got to Charlestown High as a freshman, I wanted to sign up for orchestra, but they said Charlestown High didn’t have an orchestra. In Georgia, almost all schools offer orchestra.
“So I said, ‘Can I sign up for chorus?’ But Charlestown High didn’t have a chorus, either.”
Without art programs she loved, Massey said, “school seemed more like a prison.”
But the following year, the school started a band and a chorus, and now students stay late to take part. “A school can’t be good without arts,” Massey, who is now a senior, told the School Committee.
Massey is a member of the Hyde Square Task Force, which sent her and several other students to the recent budget hearing at English High School to make the case that the arts are important.
During last year’s budget deliberations, most School Committee members said they wanted to consider establishing a baseline budget for each school that would give every BPS student access to a quality education. Committee members still haven’t had that discussion, but parts of it are happening in front of them at the budget hearings as students, parents, and teachers make their cases for what they want to see in the budget.
The School Committee hasn’t talked about arts programs in their budget discussions so far, but they did tackle whether every school should have a full-time nurse, social worker, and school psychologist. Social workers and school psychologists, with support from parents, are making a strong case for it.
During that discussion, the Committee wrestled with what services every child should be able to find in any BPS school. Superintendent Tommy Chang argued for letting school leaders decide how to use their limited resources, but some School Committee members were more focused on making sure every school provides a program that meets students’ needs.
“What happens in a high school that decides they don’t need counselors?” asked Committee member Miren Uriarte. “It’s … part of the central office’s job to make sure that people are making the right decisions, that they’re within the bounds of what students need.”
Spending on social-emotional health has to compete with other school needs for the limited pot of money the school gets through the district’s complex “weighted student funding” formula.
In the proposed budget for 2018–2019, a third of BPS schools will get less money than they are spending this school year.
A principal or headmaster might decide that the school needs a literacy coach more than a counselor. Reading scores weigh heavily in a school’s rating, much more than students’ emotional well-being. And while social-emotional health advocates may argue that students won’t learn to read if they’re in an emotional crisis, a school could decide that a literacy coach will make a bigger difference.
“I’m all for autonomy up to a certain point,” said Committee member Alexandra Oliver-Davila, “but … we want to make sure we have safe schools.”
There was talk of “guardrails,” which could keep school leaders from neglecting social-emotional supports in their schools.
But Superintendent Chang insisted, “We should not ever go back into the business of trying to manage everything from the central office. Teachers and school leaders know what’s best.”
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BPS Budget: This year, the parents’ pleas to restore school cuts began in Spanish
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A Billion in the Bank, Cuts in our Schools: BPS Funding Explained
The BPS budget: How about giving every school enough to offer a good education?
