Arts Instruction in LAUSD

* Your article, “Bringing the Arts to School, Through the Back Door” (Valley Perspective, Sept. 10), regarding the arts program at Vanalden Elementary School, failed to mention recent commitments by the Board of Education that have propelled the Los Angeles Unified School District to the forefront of school districts in the state and nation in arts education. In fact, one of my goals upon being elected to the Board of Education in 1997 was to restore the arts to the K-12 curriculum to ensure that every student would have an opportunity to have a substantive education in the arts. To that end, I convened a committee of prominent arts leaders to assist district staff in developing a strategy for returning the arts to every school as soon as possible.

The city Board of Education in July 1999 adopted a 10-year commitment to rebuild an arts program that had been slimmed down substantially over the years--victimized by budget cuts and other priorities. This year, the school board allocated $5.3 million to this program on top of last year’s $4.7 million. We have, thus, clearly signaled our intention to strengthen arts instruction as an essential element in the core curriculum of this district. The district’s plan and our promise is to give young people greater access to music, visual arts, dance and theater throughout their K-12 years.

Every elementary school in the district has a traveling music teacher and funding for instructional materials. Since passage of the 10-year plan, nearly 100 elementary schools have become prototype sites where teachers receive extra training in how to teach the arts as a separate subject, as well as how to integrate the arts more effectively into the teaching of other core subjects--reading, math, social sciences, etc. Helping the new local districts expand that program to more schools is among our goals for this year.

VALERIE FIELDS

LAUSD Board of Education

District 4