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Q&A
Addressing the lack of dedicated art classrooms and plans for expansion
2:08:06
ยท
175 sec
Council Member Rita Joseph inquires about the impact of insufficient dedicated art classrooms and plans for expansion. DOE officials provide information on current art facilities and efforts to improve arts education spaces through the Principal Fellows program.
- 52% of schools do not have dedicated art classrooms, according to the arts in schools report.
- There are 1,222 school buildings with arts rooms, totaling 4,081 arts rooms throughout the city, averaging 3.34 art spaces per building.
- The Principal Fellows program, with 170 total participants, is working to upgrade and create new art spaces in schools.
- 40 principal fellows are currently involved in projects to build out new art spaces or refurbish existing ones, including paint jobs, new furniture, and repurposing rooms for arts usage.
Rita Joseph
2:08:06
Art facilities, the arts in school report found that 52% of schools do not have dedicated art classrooms.
2:08:12
What impacts does that have on the instruction quality and there are there any plans to expand art facilities in schools that currently lack dedicated space for art instruction?
Paul Thompson
2:08:23
So what we were able to pull from the school year 2425 from the school construction authority reporting is that there are 1,222 school buildings with arts rooms, and there are 4,081 arts rooms throughout the city.
2:08:43
This averages out to about 3.34 art spaces per building.
2:08:51
And so look, ideally, we we are dedicated and believe in having standalone arts classrooms to help support, you know, the basis of of undergirding arts instruction.
2:09:10
However, you know, the current reality is that in many spaces, schools are sharing buildings.
2:09:17
And so this is a very difficult thing that is challenging for us.
2:09:22
But one of the things that we as an arts office are trying to do, again, by working with principals who make the decisions around how their offices, how their buildings are utilized.
2:09:34
With our principal fellows alone, again, we we have over a 40 that we targeted.
2:09:41
And, again, it's it's we we represented this as if you come to the arts office and you work with us and the unique kind of professional development that we will provide, we were able to then leverage through this administration ensuring that the plans that we develop with them at putting the arts at the core of their instructional vision, we were then able to come in and help do facility upgrades for them.
2:10:06
So we are looking forward to to making sure that those facility upgrades are completed by the end of this school year, and we look forward to our next cohort of 70 plus principals for next year where we can also hopefully provide this kind of opportunity.
Rita Joseph
2:10:24
How many do you have?
Paul Thompson
2:10:27
Total principal fellows, we have 170.
Rita Joseph
2:10:30
And those dedicated spaces that you're building out, how many are you building out?
Paul Thompson
2:10:34
We had a 40
Hannah Burson
2:10:39
principal fellows able to avail themselves of this opportunity.
2:10:43
It is to both build out new art spaces as well as to refurbish those that already exist.
2:10:48
So things like paint jobs, new furniture, providing dumpsters for the really glamorous work of emptying out rooms that need to be repurposed for arts usage,
Cordelia Veve
2:10:57
things of that nature.
Rita Joseph
2:10:59
Thank you.