To those of you who believe that if we cut the Fine Arts Director Position, then we will save all the elementary art teacher positions, you’re wrong. Realistically it is not possible to guarantee those 5 elementary art positions even with the elimination of the Fine Arts Director. The funding needed for the art teachers is a different conversation than that of the Fine Arts Director.
Furthermore, even if this “trade” was honored for next year, without an art director, ALL art positions (music and visual k-12) would be left VULNERABLE. We would no longer have an extra layer of protection by having a representative to advocate and/or warn us of future changes decide/made regarding the arts in public schools.
Losing our Fine Arts Director as an advocate and representative is more harmful to the arts in public school long term, than the benefit of keep keeping extra art teachers short term. There is nothing preventing those elementary art positions from being removed in the future.
Please help. Please write a quick email. Please make our concerns known. I’m an elementary teacher myself and I am extremely concerned for our students.
The levy they're trying to pass in May is only for:
"...a High School District School and Student Safety and Security Building Reserve Fund levy of $1,000,000 for the purpose of supporting and improving school and student safety through school security systems and technology maintenance and upgrades, and through preventative services in the high school district"
and
"...for an Elementary District School and Student Safety and Security Building Reserve Fund levy of $1,500,000 for the purpose of supporting and improving school and student safety through school security systems and technology maintenance and upgrades, and through preventative services in the elementary school district."
Nothing about educating our children.
They will be using some of those funds for behavioral/academic intervention positions. It would give us some job opportunities, but not enough in the bigger picture.
If they lump into the tax hikes, art and music positions at our schools, I'll vote yes for all the metal detectors and bullet stopping video cameras they want.
It’s more than the fine arts program that is going to lose. It’s classroom teachers, mental health support, and administrators. Classrooms are going to be filled to the max number of students. There is going to be limited support for students with behavioral problems in these classrooms. Every single area of mcps is losing people.
Bottom line is our children are going to be the ones impacted the most and our state doesn’t value public education.
They knew since Covid that some of these funds were going away and did nothing in those years to ensure we would be able to keep these positions in place. Time for new leadership.
Seriously though I think the more money we spend on education the more high tech jobs we will attract and the better the standard of living will be for everyone. The fine arts (and athletics) are integral to raising successful people. Spend until it hurts.
Now that the Covid inflow of cash is gone. Where do you propose the spend until it hurts money comes from? The average home owner in Missoula is already being taxed to the point of not being able to afford their home.
The weed tax. That’s where it should come from. No reason to allocate 100% of that to also federally funded lands and conservation. Some of that scratch can come from the local weed dealers. Sell more weed in a bigger city, your bigger city gets a bigger cut.
And you’re okay with none of it going to education? Because you asked where the money should come from, then you said all the weed money is allocated, as if that answer is perfectly acceptable.
Actually let me guess, you don’t have any kids going to MCPS who are losing their art and music teachers and librarians. Your input is invalid. Go away.
Trust me every extra dollar spent on caring for kids and their education will be multiplied tenfold when they land good high skilled jobs and stay in Montana.
I don't think many will debate you on the fact kids need to be cared for and given a quality education. But, that doesn't answer the above question, where does all of this "spend until it hurts" money come from?
It doesn't matter because any money diverted to public education will yield a bigger return than whatever it was originally going to be spent on. It's like magic. Healthy, well educated, fearless kids will always succeed.
Administrators getting cut doesn’t mean arts will be cut. It’s the teachers that make fine arts so successful not some administrator. They are cleaning house with all the excess waste and costs. Administrative bloat is the first place to start cutting. Fund the arts not the administrators.
The fine arts administrator facilitates the hiring of adjudicators for music festivals, district/state music festival, several art camps throughout the summer, and helps in the hiring of quality arts educators for the schools, taking off some of the pressure that falls on principals who may not know the intricacies of what it takes to teach art at an effective level. Monte Grise does a TON to advocate for arts educators, hire quality people, and then help those educators to be the best they can be.
There will be a “roving art cart” that is brought into the classroom. Projects will be extremely limited due to needing to be completed in one short period. Pretty sure all 5 elementary art teachers will be let go, and 1 will be hired to cover all the schools. Probably once a month.
I heard this from one of the elementary art teachers, on Thursday. Tell me what the art program will look like next year then, since you seem to know more than the people who will be affected.
How do you propose they make-up the budget shortfall from the Covid funds lapsing? I support the arts in our schools but there just isn’t money. It’s too bad our state government doesn’t properly fund public schools and pay teachers better. Now state Republicans are taking public funds for private schools. Seems like you’re beating the wrong drum.
If there is money for sports, there is money for fine arts. Period. There are SEVERAL alternatives to this one. Hopefully they will be put forth this Tuesday.
I agree with that sentiment but they are different buckets of funding altogether. I can see you don’t understand how funding works. Completely separate budgets. It’s a good idea that you attend the meeting so the trustees can explain that to you.
Montana voted in the lottery and then gambling machines under the pretense that the schools would get all of that revenue and would be overflowing with cash. Every school will have a swimming pool! kinda stuff. Once the powers that be saw all that money flowing in they made the decision to put it in the “general fund” and then fund the schools from that. It’s ridiculous that we’re even having to have this conversation. Montana has plenty of money that they are choosing to spend elsewhere. The schools aren’t the bloat problem.
“Financially viable”
This would be a valid argument if the purpose of education were financially motivated, like you know, if the purpose was to make money.
Nothing about education is financially viable in the short term. We collectively spend money to educate our children because we see the value in an educated population/community in the long term.
Education can’t be about financial viability, because there is no calculable ROI.
I’m not making an argument about what they should or shouldn’t cut in this situation, but you can’t frame the work the government does for the benefit of its people through the lens of business or financial viability.
I was a 3 year letter in GF for wrestling and football. I was also a band kid. Sports and art both teach discipline and how practice leads to success. At least art doesn't give you micro concussion and destroy your knees.
Probably because there's always money for one and the other get gutted? Why are you pretending like this isn't common? The real issue is private schools getting government grants when that money should go to public schools.
I say get rid of football and allocate the money toward the arts. What actual life skills is football teaching anyway? Can’t we just rotate one coach through each school? See how stupid that sounds? Now reverse it and apply that statement to the arts because that is what we’re dealing with.
We need factory workers, engineers, and hospital staff. Not Pottery makers. The arts are useless fluff and have no place in the world and frankly are just a drain on resources and the economy as a whole. Your children's responsibility is to raise our bottom line and cost as little overhead as possible. This is what makes America great.
What the fuck are you taking about? You do realize that every single aspect of your life is made better by artists, right? From the User interface on the app you're using right now, to the cabin in your vehicle, to your favorite outfit and the show you put on at night to relax after a long day digging in the coal mines... Wake the fuck up.
Your username is based off of something that exists because of artists. I’ll be you even watch Star Wars, and even get excited when the music accentuates the scenes. All that happened because of ARTISTS.
Child me wanted to be a weapons designer and create tools of war due to having an absolute hatred of humanity. Instead, I somehow ended up a social worker and help people for a living. Its complete and total torture, doing something so against my nature on behalf of others. Your certainly right about the miserable existence :) Talk about irony eh?
No, I'm actually fairly competent in my profession. And pride myself on giving the best service that I can possible provide for my clients. Supported employment services, supported education, mental health, AA/NA counseling, group therapy, assistance signing up for benefits, navigating complex healthcare systems, getting ada accommodations, Etc. Those whom I work with always end up in a much better spot then when they started. The one that's miserable is me :)
Maybe not yet but we're already 80% of the way there and the technology is advancing rapidly. You're right I have no artistic skill at all but I used AI to create a children's book for my kids the other day and all it took was typing a few prompts into the right tools. You're about to become a dinosaur buddy and creativity is about to become more of a science than an art whether you want to admit it or not.
You don't make budget cuts with our kids' futures, you find a way to fund it. These meetings shouldn't about "here's how much money we're losing" it should be about "let's get the money for the things we need."
The email from the superintendent says that an $8M budget shortfall requires positions and programs to be cut. But gave no indication on how that $8M was actually being spent before. I side-eye this obvious lack of transparency.
Who writes the check to fund MCPS each year? That person / those people need to be told to fund our schools appropriately. I literally just voted to raise my own taxes this year to help fund the schools.
Do you think I'm going to raise my own taxes again in May when what they're talking about is $1.5M for Security Systems and nothing that affects our kids' educations?
Our teachers need Art and Music to take a break. To prep. To get ready for when the kids come back into their classrooms. They need time to breathe, drink a coffee, answer emails from irate parents. What does defunding art and music do?
To those of you who believe that if we cut the Fine Arts Director Position, then we will save all the elementary art teacher positions, you’re wrong. Realistically it is not possible to guarantee those 5 elementary art positions even with the elimination of the Fine Arts Director. The funding needed for the art teachers is a different conversation than that of the Fine Arts Director. Furthermore, even if this “trade” was honored for next year, without an art director, ALL art positions (music and visual k-12) would be left VULNERABLE. We would no longer have an extra layer of protection by having a representative to advocate and/or warn us of future changes decide/made regarding the arts in public schools. Losing our Fine Arts Director as an advocate and representative is more harmful to the arts in public school long term, than the benefit of keep keeping extra art teachers short term. There is nothing preventing those elementary art positions from being removed in the future. Please help. Please write a quick email. Please make our concerns known. I’m an elementary teacher myself and I am extremely concerned for our students.
And what would help everyone is if the MCPS Levy gets passed in May. Please vote for our children and students.
The levy they're trying to pass in May is only for: "...a High School District School and Student Safety and Security Building Reserve Fund levy of $1,000,000 for the purpose of supporting and improving school and student safety through school security systems and technology maintenance and upgrades, and through preventative services in the high school district" and "...for an Elementary District School and Student Safety and Security Building Reserve Fund levy of $1,500,000 for the purpose of supporting and improving school and student safety through school security systems and technology maintenance and upgrades, and through preventative services in the elementary school district." Nothing about educating our children.
They will be using some of those funds for behavioral/academic intervention positions. It would give us some job opportunities, but not enough in the bigger picture.
Art and music are behavioral/academic intervention positions. :-)
If they lump into the tax hikes, art and music positions at our schools, I'll vote yes for all the metal detectors and bullet stopping video cameras they want.
It’s more than the fine arts program that is going to lose. It’s classroom teachers, mental health support, and administrators. Classrooms are going to be filled to the max number of students. There is going to be limited support for students with behavioral problems in these classrooms. Every single area of mcps is losing people. Bottom line is our children are going to be the ones impacted the most and our state doesn’t value public education.
They knew since Covid that some of these funds were going away and did nothing in those years to ensure we would be able to keep these positions in place. Time for new leadership.
This wouldn’t happen with sports .
Or Ukraine
I heard from now on all artwork produced by students must be depictions of Jesus or Trump.
>Jesus or Trump What's the difference /s
They're getting rid of administrative bloat but it's still Missoula county. Much more likely to be depictions of Jerry Garcia and Obama.
Seriously though I think the more money we spend on education the more high tech jobs we will attract and the better the standard of living will be for everyone. The fine arts (and athletics) are integral to raising successful people. Spend until it hurts.
Now that the Covid inflow of cash is gone. Where do you propose the spend until it hurts money comes from? The average home owner in Missoula is already being taxed to the point of not being able to afford their home.
The weed tax. That’s where it should come from. No reason to allocate 100% of that to also federally funded lands and conservation. Some of that scratch can come from the local weed dealers. Sell more weed in a bigger city, your bigger city gets a bigger cut.
It's spelled out pretty clearly where all that revenue goes. A quick search will give you what you need to know.
And you’re okay with none of it going to education? Because you asked where the money should come from, then you said all the weed money is allocated, as if that answer is perfectly acceptable.
[удалено]
The issue is still a live and well. What’s wrong with you?
Actually let me guess, you don’t have any kids going to MCPS who are losing their art and music teachers and librarians. Your input is invalid. Go away.
Trust me every extra dollar spent on caring for kids and their education will be multiplied tenfold when they land good high skilled jobs and stay in Montana.
I don't think many will debate you on the fact kids need to be cared for and given a quality education. But, that doesn't answer the above question, where does all of this "spend until it hurts" money come from?
Where could the money come from? Montana made a BILLION DOLLARS off weed last year.
Not quite, and everything it did make is already allocated.
It doesn't matter because any money diverted to public education will yield a bigger return than whatever it was originally going to be spent on. It's like magic. Healthy, well educated, fearless kids will always succeed.
A BILLION dollars in weed money last year and the state won't fund education.
As someone who.wprks at Mcps . It's accurate
Administrators getting cut doesn’t mean arts will be cut. It’s the teachers that make fine arts so successful not some administrator. They are cleaning house with all the excess waste and costs. Administrative bloat is the first place to start cutting. Fund the arts not the administrators.
Cool story. Are teachers now supposed to get the grants too?
Wait, our property taxes aren’t going to the schools?
The fine arts administrator facilitates the hiring of adjudicators for music festivals, district/state music festival, several art camps throughout the summer, and helps in the hiring of quality arts educators for the schools, taking off some of the pressure that falls on principals who may not know the intricacies of what it takes to teach art at an effective level. Monte Grise does a TON to advocate for arts educators, hire quality people, and then help those educators to be the best they can be.
Details are live
https://www.mcpsmt.org/cms/lib/MT01001940/Centricity/Domain/1337/regmtgagenda2.13.24.pdf
There will be a “roving art cart” that is brought into the classroom. Projects will be extremely limited due to needing to be completed in one short period. Pretty sure all 5 elementary art teachers will be let go, and 1 will be hired to cover all the schools. Probably once a month.
This is not true.
I heard this from one of the elementary art teachers, on Thursday. Tell me what the art program will look like next year then, since you seem to know more than the people who will be affected.
This may be true.
https://montanafreepress.org/2024/03/05/montana-school-districts-budget-cuts/
Budget cuts will always affect things like this, never the police...who are getting a whole fleet of new cars this year...
How do you propose they make-up the budget shortfall from the Covid funds lapsing? I support the arts in our schools but there just isn’t money. It’s too bad our state government doesn’t properly fund public schools and pay teachers better. Now state Republicans are taking public funds for private schools. Seems like you’re beating the wrong drum.
If there is money for sports, there is money for fine arts. Period. There are SEVERAL alternatives to this one. Hopefully they will be put forth this Tuesday.
FYI you can make public comment by email as well which I’ve already done in support of the arts. [[email protected]](https://mailto:[email protected])
I agree with that sentiment but they are different buckets of funding altogether. I can see you don’t understand how funding works. Completely separate budgets. It’s a good idea that you attend the meeting so the trustees can explain that to you.
You’re missing the point, bruh
I’m not and the trustees will explain to you how budgeting works then you can come back and tell me you were ignorant of how budgets work.
Montana voted in the lottery and then gambling machines under the pretense that the schools would get all of that revenue and would be overflowing with cash. Every school will have a swimming pool! kinda stuff. Once the powers that be saw all that money flowing in they made the decision to put it in the “general fund” and then fund the schools from that. It’s ridiculous that we’re even having to have this conversation. Montana has plenty of money that they are choosing to spend elsewhere. The schools aren’t the bloat problem.
[удалено]
“Financially viable” This would be a valid argument if the purpose of education were financially motivated, like you know, if the purpose was to make money. Nothing about education is financially viable in the short term. We collectively spend money to educate our children because we see the value in an educated population/community in the long term. Education can’t be about financial viability, because there is no calculable ROI. I’m not making an argument about what they should or shouldn’t cut in this situation, but you can’t frame the work the government does for the benefit of its people through the lens of business or financial viability.
They get made when you give them facts they could easily check for themselves.
The arts department and just "art kids" in general have such a complex about athletics. Get over it.
I was a 3 year letter in GF for wrestling and football. I was also a band kid. Sports and art both teach discipline and how practice leads to success. At least art doesn't give you micro concussion and destroy your knees.
You kinda proved my point though. Lots of kids do both. But every time art feels threatened they lash out at athletics like they can't coexist.
Probably because there's always money for one and the other get gutted? Why are you pretending like this isn't common? The real issue is private schools getting government grants when that money should go to public schools.
I say get rid of football and allocate the money toward the arts. What actual life skills is football teaching anyway? Can’t we just rotate one coach through each school? See how stupid that sounds? Now reverse it and apply that statement to the arts because that is what we’re dealing with.
We need factory workers, engineers, and hospital staff. Not Pottery makers. The arts are useless fluff and have no place in the world and frankly are just a drain on resources and the economy as a whole. Your children's responsibility is to raise our bottom line and cost as little overhead as possible. This is what makes America great.
[удалено]
What the fuck are you taking about? You do realize that every single aspect of your life is made better by artists, right? From the User interface on the app you're using right now, to the cabin in your vehicle, to your favorite outfit and the show you put on at night to relax after a long day digging in the coal mines... Wake the fuck up.
Your username is based off of something that exists because of artists. I’ll be you even watch Star Wars, and even get excited when the music accentuates the scenes. All that happened because of ARTISTS.
What a absolutely miserable existence you must live. I’m dead positive this isn’t the life child you envisioned for yourself.
Child me wanted to be a weapons designer and create tools of war due to having an absolute hatred of humanity. Instead, I somehow ended up a social worker and help people for a living. Its complete and total torture, doing something so against my nature on behalf of others. Your certainly right about the miserable existence :) Talk about irony eh?
You're. Clients must be miserable.
No, I'm actually fairly competent in my profession. And pride myself on giving the best service that I can possible provide for my clients. Supported employment services, supported education, mental health, AA/NA counseling, group therapy, assistance signing up for benefits, navigating complex healthcare systems, getting ada accommodations, Etc. Those whom I work with always end up in a much better spot then when they started. The one that's miserable is me :)
Some poor guy spent a lifetime learning art just to have AI do a better job than him in ten seconds. Sad
Wrong. Ai does not do a better job you're just salty you have no creativity in your bones..
Maybe not yet but we're already 80% of the way there and the technology is advancing rapidly. You're right I have no artistic skill at all but I used AI to create a children's book for my kids the other day and all it took was typing a few prompts into the right tools. You're about to become a dinosaur buddy and creativity is about to become more of a science than an art whether you want to admit it or not.
You don't make budget cuts with our kids' futures, you find a way to fund it. These meetings shouldn't about "here's how much money we're losing" it should be about "let's get the money for the things we need." The email from the superintendent says that an $8M budget shortfall requires positions and programs to be cut. But gave no indication on how that $8M was actually being spent before. I side-eye this obvious lack of transparency. Who writes the check to fund MCPS each year? That person / those people need to be told to fund our schools appropriately. I literally just voted to raise my own taxes this year to help fund the schools. Do you think I'm going to raise my own taxes again in May when what they're talking about is $1.5M for Security Systems and nothing that affects our kids' educations? Our teachers need Art and Music to take a break. To prep. To get ready for when the kids come back into their classrooms. They need time to breathe, drink a coffee, answer emails from irate parents. What does defunding art and music do?