Thursday, November 24, 2016
McMahon High School Could Fund Theatre But Won't
OnStage: Just as is the case with many high schools across the country, theatre at Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk, CT is unfunded by the school. Now before you get all up in arms about a school not supporting theatre, understand that high school budgets can be complex. Funds need to be allocated to cover not only expenses and salaries but also repairs to facilities and new educational materials.
However, even with the way funds need to be allocated at the school, the theatre program isn't asking for much. In fact, a recent Gofundme campaign stated that they are only looking for $15,000 to cover the expenses for the next 5 years. That's $3,000 per year, not exactly a king's ransom and the amount is quite significant for reasons you see in just a moment.
While there are certainly places where McMahon needs to spend their funds, there is one blatant way the school could fund its theatre program but won't.
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22 comments:
Yikes. Well this is certainly unfortunate. It is always a bummer when high school theatre and other high school arts programs get shorted, especially since so many professional theatre and art practitioners get started in high school. In my own experience, I know for sure that if it were not for my own high school's robust performing arts program, I would not have ended up pursing a BFA at CMU.
From what I understand based on the GoFundMe page, this high school puts on one musical a year, and the bare bones $3000 covers script rights, an accompanist, and a choreographer. That is seriously a skeletal budget. I suppose being able to put on one show is better than no shows. I wonder if they are able to utilize their performance space for class projects and such, so that the learning that happens is not just limited to one annual production.
The argument for freezing administrative salaries feels a little weak to me, if only because I think it then becomes not fair that other programs don't qualify for the same argument. If you are cutting salaries to pay for one program, why does that not carry over to others. That being said, those administrators do see to be making a quite a decent sum compared to the completely unfunded arts program...
Obviously this kind of situation, while it's a common one, sucks. I wish this article had gone more into the details of why this theater program was important, and why the school board decided to allocate that money to somewhere else instead of theater program anyway. Although this isn't the answer everyone wants to hear, I do feel like articles like this sensationalize high school budgeting a little bit. What most people don't realize (and what the article touched on a bit) is that depending on where the money comes from, sometimes it can only be used for certain things. My senior year of high school we got new tennis nets, new basketball hoops and backboards, and (the thing that made everyone lose their minds) a huge flat-screen TV in the girls locker room that, to my knowledge, has still not been used to this day. Meanwhile our theater program was struggling to produce just two shows a year, and students were having to help pay for their own costumes. Everyone got very up in arms about it, but in the end it turned out that this wasn't a case of a Lemonade-Mouth-style principal stating that theater doesn't matter, but that the sports teams had just received a huge amount of funding this year that had been allocated a long time ago and the money could legally only have been put towards the teams. This doesn't necessarily sound like the same situation, but it's just a good reminder that sometimes there is more going on in the school's administrative process than a bunch of well-paid old people deciding that theater isn't important.
This article hits pretty close to home to me, literally, as I’m from Norwalk, CT. I was born there, and until I came to Pittsburgh I lived there all my life, but I didn’t go to McMahon. My sister and I went to school one town over in Westport, CT because my mom worked in the district and the education was way better. And when I say way better, I mean all across the board, including the arts. Throughout high school, I spent most of my time either in the theatre (which through a budget replenished by wealthy donators was able to spend over $10,000 each year I was there on the lighting department alone) or across the hall, in a 32 track recording studio where we scheduled free recording sessions for high school bands, did free televised (public access) sets for bands, and in conjunction with the theatre department did an annual live radio play complete with students participating foley artists. The way I saw it, I was afforded all these resources just because I went to high school one town over from where I lived, and so I was going to be damn sure that I took advantage of that opportunity. And that landed me where I am now at CMU.
It also did my sister well, as she’s now a student at SVA hoping to be a painter. Last year, she submitted a painting she did in high school in the congressional art competition. She won 1st place in our district, and she and my family were invited to the DC to meet our representative in congress. Her painting hung in the capitol for a year. I hate to be nostalgic for my high school days, but I genuinely doubt that either of us would have been able to achieve in that capacity if not for the fact that my high school valued the arts. I’m sure many around Purnell have a similar story.
I know McMahon is not the only high school that undervalues theatre, and I’m sure that there are other departments that are traditionally seen as less frivolous that are equally hurting for funding. And Ben, I understand why you say that the argument for freezing administrative salaries feels weak. But they’ve asked for a one time $15,000 allocation to operate over the next 5 years. That means that the money the administrative faculty gets as a raise, who I can guarantee already make way more than a teacher’s salary, isn’t only being moved away from the theatre, but from any department who might benefit from a bit of that money every following year. I don’t mean to say that they don’t work hard, but it makes more sense to me that the school sink funds into programs students benefit from if the administration already has a decent pay.
This type of thing is super frustrating but not surprising. Everyone always points to the funding sports or other programs get over the arts and I think that complaint is definitely valid, but it doesn’t solve the problem. As Lucy points out in her comment, there is a stupid amount of red tape and bureaucracy that goes on in public school budgeting, with decisions often made because “that’s the way it is” or in order to not piss off anyone, you please no one… I guess it just seems like a lot of the time, the arts is the area that gets ripped off. Everyone has read about the studies showing that arts funding is just as important as athletics and STEM, and yet somehow schools still don’t prioritize the arts. When it comes to giving people raises and defunding programs, I can totally understand the outrage, because then no students are benefiting. I really don’t think an administrator needs another couple thousand to be a better… administrator. They likely don’t even teach! The actual teachers are the ones deserving a raise, if anyone.
I think Ben makes a good point in his comment – could this money be spent on smaller productions or educational opportunities rather than one big yearly production? I know everyone loves a big musical, but part of the reason funding public school theatre is that all anyone on the budgeting team seems is a huge cost for a single experience for a select number of students. And while things like sports get a lot of funding, there’s plenty of money spent by students and their families. In my experience, personal gear and uniforms aren’t covered by the school… wouldn’t that be similar to students paying for their costumes in a play? While I’m a big believer in making educational theatre (and educational anything, for that matter) as accessible as possible to people with any level of economic means, you have to realize that any of these programs often include an upfront cost. So then maybe it’s s matter of saying, OK, the town can’t pay for everything, let’s work with what we have and compromise and raise funds and pay a bit ourselves… and in the process make sure that no one is getting left out financially. That of course requires cooperation from both sides, which it sounds like the town is not providing in this situation… The amount of administrative inflation present in public and private schooling in America has gotten outrageous, and while it sounds harsh… yeah, firing one person could leave a lot of funds for struggling programs. So is it really so beneficial to be hiring so many non-teaching administrators? I’m not convinced.
Why is this not surprising? It is always the arts that gets cut first. I know that STEM fields and other more traditional academic and sports activities offer just as important of skills to students as the arts, but that does not explain why theatre programs across the country are so often struggling to provide opportunities to their students. And $15,000 over 5 years is not that much to contribute, especially as it seems this school has plenty to pay its administrators. The goal of school is to educate its students, not pay the admins. I know in high school for me, our budget was pretty much comprised of budget left over from the previous year. This means that we had to sell enough tickets and raise enough money ourselves to pay for our shows. This means that an original investment of $15,000 might even be able to go further than 5 years, if they theatre program is able to recuperate some of their losses.I really hope that this school finds a solution to this issue. This can be giving the program the money it has requested, or find another solution that could work.
It absolutely baffles me when institutions decide to limit student’s creativity by removing the funding from their art programs. There are several schools in my neighborhood as well as neighboring school systems that have moved their funding form the dram program to their sports program or just decided to remove all funding altogether. For this school to have available funds for a drama program that has the opportunity to inspire our youth to create a creative outlet for no reason is absurd. As I said before- this baffles me. This reminds me of all those hypothetical sayings like “If we take away education to some people they’ll never grow up to discover the cure of cancer like their fate was meant to” If we take away these students creative outlet, who knows what we won’t be blessed with. Their reasoning’s for defunding the program are immature and juvenile in my opinion.
This is a sad sight to see but I am not surprised in the slightest. It always seems to be the performing arts programs that get shorted. It was always a constant battle at my high school to get the funding we need to grow the program. I fear that if I didn’t have a director pushing for recognition at my high school I wouldn’t be where I am today. For my high school and many that surrounded the area continued to struggle as schools continued to pour money into the athletics. I think the thing that frustrates me the most is that the funds are there but the school has a “complex budget” that leaves most performing arts departments to draw the short straw. It is extremely important to fight for recognition whether it is through a go fund me or another type fundraising. For me, and other like me, that found the arts to be something they wanted to pursue as a career relies on these high school programs to get a good foundation before going into an intensive program like CMU.
When it comes to school districts my high school was no different. Year in and year out we had less and less art funding, but instead of teachers salary's, which have been dropping for years, the athletic spending has practically triples. With art teachers funding classes out of their pockets and students have to buy all of their supplies the only thing the school does is supply a room and a under payed teacher. The school produces a few national level athletes a year and thats enough for them to dumb buckets of money into a brand new weight room that hardly anyone uses. However artists from Novi High School have received the same amount of awards on a national level through Scholastic Art and Writing, yet we don't get half the recognition that the athletes do, and not even half the funding. It just goes to show that when it comes to our school board all they care about it test scores and athletes. Outside funding is great and all until your school tells you that outside funding is unacceptable and bars you from receiving the funds even when they are available to you. More than just money we need a whole change in thought when it comes to the arts, or maybe school board members thats under seventy years old for once.
The administrators of this school simply don't understand the value and importance of Theatre Arts and how theatre and the arts in general can change the lives of students. This is kind of surprising though because there are only countless studies about this. -- I'd like to see how funded their sports programs are since I enjoy irony. And really, I suppose I don't fault them for wanting a raise, because sure, money is nice. If I was in their position, I can't say I wouldn't go for a raise first. But I would also make sure that the arts were funded and I find it very surprising that they are blatantly refusing to fund the program at all. But are they in their jobs for the good of their students, or is this just what they're moderately good at and can have a decent career doing? I think that if the administrators were really interested in supporting the interests of the students, and fostering an arts environment that would (as research shows) supplement student well being, they would be funding theatre. I'd like to hear what they have to say, especially given their budgets and salaries have become a matter of public record. It must be pretty hard to defend this and they certainly look bad.
I agree with Lucy, not every budget is a free-for-all where people can pick and choose what goes to what, in public schools there are required raises after X years for faculty, and while, yeah, I really don't think the Principal who is making 180k already needs the extra 3k, it might not be as cut and dry as this writer is making it out to be. Yes! This school should have a performing arts department! Yes! This school should REALLY consider rethinking their budget and how they allocate resources! But that doesn't mean the big bad principal and housemates or whatever are out to get the theater kids.
Also, it would make a difference if this is a private school or a public school, which the article doesn't mention. It should do that!
My high school was pretty fortunate to have an administration who recognized the importance of arts education, and we got some pretty cute toys. My junior year we got an ETC Ion and everyone about died, we had never used such a ~fancy~ board before. Of course, all of our paint was still the mistakenly mixed ones from the hardware store, and someone's dad OWNED the hardware store so he gave us a discount, but still. It was a good time. I want these kids to have a good time too!
All things aside, it IS a shameful thing to raise the salaries for a handful of school principals who already make at least 150k and then watch the school’s theatre program to seek outside funding on GoFundMe. It is one thing to have tried everything they could but there was still a financial crisis so the theatre kids go ask money from strangers on a funding website, and a completely different one if the school did not even try to apply for grants, plea for donations, negotiate with board members, and let the theatre faculty to take care of the kids themselves. The school is basically keeping five top-food-chain people happy at the expense of many future young artists. To be honest, I’m not surprised by that. The situation seems far too familiar for everyone who comes from an art/theatre background. There are still a lot of schools and people on earth that do not value art as much as we do. Art is something that one can have if there’s extra time and extra money. Art programs are always one of the first to bear the brunt of funding shortage of any kind.
What the theatre kids at McMahon High School ask for is really so little to cover for a production that it breaks one’s heart to see them go online imploring for it. I hope the money goes directly to the program without anyone from the administration having their finger in the pie.
This is the kind of thing that unfortunately seems to happen all to0 often in our school system. For whatever reason, whenever schools need to make budget cuts the arts are normally the first place they look, and the last place they go when there’s money to be spent. Now normally I’d say this is because of the reputation the arts have as being a terrible career path and the kind of thing people do for fun rather than seriously. But that doesn’t seem to hold up here, if the theater department and its shows are as big a deal in the school and surrounding community as their GoFundMe page makes it seem then I would have thought there would be enough outcry about the administrators getting even more money while the theater program starves. Since there’s no mention of something like that in the article I wonder if there’s more to this situation than they’re letting on. For example, why is money going to the administrators, was it given to the school specifically for them or something?
I think Cassidy makes some really good points about budgets not being so cut and dry. My mother is a public school teacher and she has been working through her contract with her union for years, and before they settled on the one they have now I listened to her argue about it for years about the previous one. From all of that, and from this article I have come to the conclusion that often the administrators at the school who benefit from a budget are not necessarily the villains in the story. It is very easy for us to say that that principal doesn't need the extra money, and maybe he or she doesn't, or knows that they don't but that doesn't mean they won't take it. The larger problem here is that public schools do not, by a lot, receive the amount of money that they need to function at a level competitive with the private schools around them. I went to public school my whole life, in a county that is mostly very poor public schools and very expensive private schools and the difference between the two is staggering. Public schools don't have enough money for books or to pay their teachers and so logically the arts programs go first. Obviously I am a big proponent of keeping them around, but often I see people get angry at administrators for budget cuts when really they have very little to do with it, or very few options to choose from.
It's really disheartening to see high schools that don't support the arts, but the reality is that not everyone can always afford it. Some school district's priorities are in other places, and they can't always see if the arts are really worth the investment. I have to agree with Cass and Lucy that the solution to this problem is probably not as simple as moving a few thousand dollars around from people's salaries every year. One thing that the students could do is try to appeal to their surrounding community. When our marching band and football team wanted a new field that the district wouldn't provide for them they starting holding fundraisers and looked for sponsors. Maybe that would be a good way to the students to raise the money for their program, but obviously it's not always an option for everyone. I know that I was very privileged to go to a high school with a decent arts budget and fantastic faculty. If I didn't have that I definitely wouldn't be pursuing stage management. This is an opportunity that I wish everyone could have, but I think we're pretty far from that goal.
Oh wow. I must say that I am disheartened by the closing of this high school's theater program. Well, not so much disheartened as I am enraged. I could understand if the funds were being relocated into teacher salaries - because they really need to be paid more for the amount of time and dedication they show towards their students. The United States vastly underpays its educators and does not set aside nearly enough funds for education. But that's an argument for a different article. Instead of transferring funds to the teachers, the school is giving its administrators yet another raise. So they are cutting off students' opportunity to participate in the arts so that the top brass can live a little easier? I would not be where I am today had I not done theater in high school. I would probably be pursuing engineering or medicine instead. I imagine the STEM supporters would be cheering at that, but what is the world without art? Life cannot live on science alone. And, in the long term, the things that mark a civilization is their art and language. why would we, as a culture, ever want to throw that out?
This article really puts things into perspective for me. Often we think of our education as a right versus a privilege because of the society we live in- however, this very high school is proof against that argument. Cutting fundings for an arts program is not something I can even comprehend because of artistic cohort i belong to: I went to an arts middle school, arts high school, and now studying drama in college. I truly don't know what type of person I'd be if I wasn't able to turn to the theatre. This career is stressful- and I am just beginning to see that now, in freshmen year- however, I am so fortunate to be studying this. I encourage students at this high school and others across the nation to continue to seek an arts education- if they won't give it to you in school- find someone who will.
Wow. Well this is certainly disappointing. Like Ben, if it weren't for my years of high school theatre, I never would have known that I wanted to be a stage manager. Career aside, my time in high school theatre was an enormous ray of light during my teenage years. There are few things I know that have the ability to nurture students' personal growth the way a theatre program can. How many students who could have benefitted from a program like this won't, because their principal needed $3,000 more per year? That's the saddest part: the school actually CAN fund it. It isn't as though they don't have the money, they just don't want to allocate it this way. I know of too many schools that have had to cut art and drama programs out of absolute necessity, so this is really just a slap in the face to them.
I guess I should feel lucky to have attended very college-preppy school like I did, at least when I compare our theatre program to that of this high school. Being extremely concerned with their identity as a "international" school who molded us into "international" citizens, and so we actually had an entire arts building, which was considerable considering we were a 500-student high school. I went to a private school, and a rich one at that I'll admit, and even they recognized the necessity of the arts in education. Too many people in this country believe that the arts are a useless frivolity but imagine the usefulness of going to see a Shakespeare play you may be studying inenglish class, or getting excited to see a play because one of your friends decided to say fuck it and audition. Those are the feeings that kept me through high school, and I'm sure there are so many more who could be inspired like me.
I, like many others I'm sure, would likely not be here if I hadn't participated in high school theater. I would never have found a passion in putting on shows, I would never even have considered Carnegie Mellon as a school I would apply to. While I have never gone to an arts school specifically, my highschool was, in general, supportive of the arts and promoted participation in the theater. From my experience, it is clear that theater promotes a responsible working environment in which everyone grows, I have never seen anything that has pushed kids to think creatively and rise to the task. It saddens me to see articles like this where the schools have the means to make something like this happen, and yet they choose to do nothing.
Reading the article I feel that I like many other find the news of a high school theater program going under for the lack of $15000 dollar funds, that would pay for the next five years, as extremely frustrating. I, as l am sure other were, was first introduced to theater productions I could be apart of in high school and it help shape my scholastic career and my professional one too, so it would be reasonable to say I strongly support theater in high schools. That being said the school does not have it in its budget due to money tag for aminstrative personal raises for five individuals who each aparrently make 6 figures. While it would be easier to just say that the school administration is "stealing" funds from the drama program, it is more likely that those raises are contractual regulated. That being said this does show a extreme lack of foresight on the schools for seemingly letting that close at program at the school. On happier news though the Drama department's go fund me campaign that was at the bottom of the page has broken $8000 in its climb towards its $15000 goal. So maybe the lights won't permanently be shut off for yet another theater department
Wow, that theatre program is not asking for much. At all. It's pretty disappointing to see the administration make these choices and choose to offer a raise to the principal and his staff. However, the article doesn't elaborate on how the budgets work within this school. It might not be very easy to transfer money that would have gone to payroll into a school activity's account. I'm sure it's not impossible, but I don't think it's very likely at any school for money to come out of payroll and go into activities funding. So, this presents us with a different issue: why can't the school spare $3k per year by reworking ANY of the other budget departments? Hopefully McMahon high will reconsider their budgeting (if not out of generosity then at least out of some pressure by the public) and fund their high school theatre program. In my opinion, keeping arts programs alive in high school is one of the most important things we can to for our industry.
We can pretty much always find a little money in the budget to pay for an arts program and the fact that we don’t is pretty saddening given all of the good things I was able to get out of mine. It is not surprising however. I don’t think the author calling out the administration raises was a great tactic because as others have pointed out above such situations are often complicated. I will take this time to say however that we often overemphasize the value of the administration in school. It seems to me that the classes I got the most out of were the ones where teachers were granted the ability to make their own decisions about what they were passionate about and what interested that group of students. I personally pretty much always argue for a working relationship with more technical leaders and less managers. I think it’s one of the things that makes CMU so awesome that our managers are also forced to develop the mind of a technical person (both artistically and in the actual crafts of theatre) and I wish more of the effort we spent administrating our schools went to supporting the teachers directly.
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