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New West school district eyes creation of arts strategy

The New Westminster school district wants to bring arts educators together to develop a district-wide strategy for arts education.
New Westminster Secondary School, bandathon
Students in a past New Westminster Secondary School bandathon fundraiser. Musical instruments were some of the big-ticket items that the school district recently purchased with $70,000 in funding allocated for arts resources.

The New Westminster school district wants to bring arts educators together to develop a district-wide strategy for arts education.

Trustees heard a presentation at their May 26 board meeting about the work that was done over 2019/20 by the district’s arts facilitator, Kelly Proznick. Proznick, who’s also a music teacher at New Westminster Secondary School, was hired for the temporary arts facilitator post thanks to surplus funds in last year’s budget that trustees agreed to put towards arts education.

In May 2019, the school board voted to allocate $180,000 in surplus funds to arts: $60,000 towards Proznick’s half-time facilitator position, $50,000 towards rental support for Massey Theatre, and $70,000 towards supplies and equipment.

Though that money isn’t available for the 2020/21 budget, the school board is looking at ways to continue developing its arts strategy over the coming year.

Proznick and Maureen McRae-Stanger, the school district’s director of instruction, learning and innovation, proposed the board could make that happen using leftover money from the 2019/20 arts funding.

They suggested the district take the unused portion of that money – about $25,000 - and use it to cover the costs for selected arts teachers from elementary, middle and secondary schools to come together with administration and collaborate on a district creative arts strategy. The money would help cover teachers on call, as required, so the group could meet for six to eight days over the course of the coming school year.

“The next step would be to actually bring together some of those key arts educators to actually create that plan,” McRae-Stanger said. “It’s at the point now where it really needs that collaborative sort of piece to continue the work and get that done.”

The leftover money was part of the $50,000 originally set aside to help schools cover the cost of Massey Theatre rentals. In the end, about half that money was left untouched – largely, McRae-Stanger noted, due to event cancellations because of COVID-19.

But McRae-Stanger also told trustees that few schools, other than New Westminster Secondary School, were actually interested in renting Massey Theatre. More of the district’s elementary and middle schools prefer to use their own school spaces for performances, she said, and those schools have said they could benefit from help to do that – with such purchases as portable staging and lighting.

Those purchases also became part of Proznick’s work, as one of the key initiatives she led was to work with all the arts teachers in the district and determine what equipment and supplies their schools needed.

Proznick explained she took school wish lists and prioritized teachers’ and principals’ requests to try to balance resources across the district. Some schools were already well-stocked and needed little to no new equipment, while others required a larger investment to catch up.

In the end, the district spent $69,820 of the available $70,000 on a huge list of supplies and equipment that included visual art supplies such as paint and easels, plus musical instruments, microphones, speakers, cameras, choral risers and more. (See sidebar below for more details.)

McRae-Stanger told trustees another key component of Proznick’s year was her work with arts educators throughout the district to identify the gaps and needs in the system and to help them establish collaborative networks across the district – work that has laid the foundation for a full creative arts strategy.

“She has done an incredible job, and especially when it comes to trying to spend and balance that resource budget,” McRae-Stanger said.

Trustee Mark Gifford, who has been one of the board’s most vocal advocates for arts funding, thanked Proznick and McRae-Stanger for their work.

“You have a very engaged group of parents and students in and around the arts in New Westminster and lots of expectations on this. Thank you for trying to hold space for that and make the most of the resources that we were able to provide this past year,” he said. “I’m excited to see that there’s a desire to move to this next level of developing a more comprehensive arts strategy for the district.”

Trustee Danielle Connelly questioned whether the recommendation for use of the $25,000 in leftover funding would, in fact, appear in the school district’s 2020/21 budget.

Secretary-treasurer Bettina Ketcham said the proposal isn’t currently reflected in the budget.

But she told trustees that “once the dust settles” and the district knows what final amounts it has at the end of its 2019/20 budget, the district can then roll that money over and build it in to its financial statements as a commitment for 2020/21.

 

 

 

HERE'S WHAT THE DISTRICT BOUGHT 

So what did $70,000 in art resource spending buy?

Here’s a sampling of some of the items purchased for New Westminster schools with the $70,000 budgeted for arts equipment and supplies in 2019/20.

 

VISUAL ARTS

Art supplies (paint, brushes, paper, craft supplies) for Connaught Heights Elementary, $1,105.68

Hurion Art Tables (class set) for École Glenbrook Middle School, $1,499.75

Mural paint and sealant for École Glenbrook Middle School, $1,181.60

Art room tool kits (including stapler, glue gun, hacksaw, hammer, safety glasses and more) for NWSS, $1,260.10

Printing press for NWSS, $2,440.00

10 art easels for NWSS, $1,559.50

Photo supplies (including camera lenses, lights, tripods) for NWSS, $6,891.07

 

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Baritone sax for École Glenbrook Middle School, $2,430.30

Oboe for École Glenbrook Middle School, $950

Instruments (including vibraslap, sleighbells, cymbal, djembe, French horn, timpani, gong) for Fraser River Middle School, $4,059.36

Instruments (including bass metallophone, bass xylophone and 30 ukuleles) for F.W. Howay, $1,373.79

Instruments (including contrabass bar and six djembes) for Richard McBride, $615.23

Two cellos for NWSS, $1,737.60

Instruments (including soprano xylophone, djembes and hand drums) for Qayqayt, $1,910.66

Instruments (including congas, frame drums, hand drums, bells, guiro, claves, maracas, bass bars, xylophones and glockenspiel) for Queen Elizabeth, $2,791.02

26 ukuleles for Lord Tweedsmuir, $1,640.24

26 recorders for Lord Tweedsmuir, $180.71

 

EQUIPMENT FOR PERFORMANCES

Portable staging and drape, $9,170.55

Wireless microphones for NWSS, $2,890.42

Flipforms (convertible stage riser/stair), $5,388.52

Set construction materials for Queensborough Middle School, $2,178.22

Choral risers for Queensborough Middle School, $6,282.51

Microphones and stands for Herbert Spencer, $313.99

 

(The above list is partial. For a full list of supplies purchased, check the New Westminster school board agenda package for May 26, here.)