Fillmore killed....again.

[Anonymous]

The only people complaining online are Ross parents. Can they find a local/walking partner to host art/music? Keegan? Studio? I have many friends at Ross, but I agree Fillmore is a time and money suck when DCPS is facing many more important priorities.

[Anonymous]

Key and stoddert parents are also upset.

A good administration would say to these schools :

"We are taking away your current art/music program, but we will do X, Y, and Z to ensure your kids still get the same quality arts/music education received by most other DCPS kids"

Thats not happening here. They havent offered to swap the existing trailerd out for double ones to make space, for example, or anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Key and stoddert parents are also upset.

A good administration would say to these schools :

"We are taking away your current art/music program, but we will do X, Y, and Z to ensure your kids still get the same quality arts/music education received by most other DCPS kids"

Thats not happening here. They havent offered to swap the existing trailerd out for double ones to make space, for example, or anything else.

The writing has been on the walls for years. What have your principals tried to do to develop a Plan B?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're missing it: almost every DCPS school in the City has separate space for art, except the Fillmore feeders.

No, you are missing the point. This is not about a space for art, it's about incorporating art as a tool for learning.

Ask any good arts instructor, would you rather have a bigger [kiln, stage, string section, whatever] or more time with students and collaboration with their teachers?

[Anonymous]

But perhaps by announcing in September for the next school year that's exactly what they are doing. Giving schools the time to plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But perhaps by announcing in September for the next school year that's exactly what they are doing. Giving schools the time to plan.

good point - in the past this has always been a frenzy in February or March when it was nearly impossible to plan for fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But perhaps by announcing in September for the next school year that's exactly what they are doing. Giving schools the time to plan.

good point - in the past this has always been a frenzy in February or March when it was nearly impossible to plan for fall.

Exactly. It cannot exactly come as a shock given they said last year it was cancelled. Then they only made a commitment to one year and basically already said it would not be continued.

I trust that the PTAs at these schools will be able to advocate with they principals to set up good arts programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Old Ross parent here again -- JEEZ. You parents who think it will be so great for your full time teachers to "collaborate" with an outside art reacher are deluding yourselves. DCPS teachers have so much on their plates, so little time, to integrate a new outside teacher to take up their space and try and thread lessons in small school houses is --IMPOSSIBLE!!! Fillmore takes the burden off of the FT teachers, places the adventure in the hands of the students, and for the arts-leaning kids it is invaluable. For the kids who "hate it", they will learn to put up with behaving on a school bus for 20 minutes a day and finding some escape from their routine of math/english/sports. Trashing Fillmore is disgraceful, know your history. Will there be a council hearing on the subject? And Fillmore supporters, have you contacted your local council and ANC?

Wow, just, wow. What century are you living in? All people are "arts-leaning." Math and English (it's called Language Arts nowadays) are incredibly arts- intensive subjects. If by "sports" you mean PE, it is anything but routine and less physical than it should be. 20 minutes on a bus is a shameful waste of the precious little active time in the school day.

Of course there is value in studio arts (aka art for art's sake). There are many excellent arts organizations that can fill that gap without schlepping Reed and Ross kids to Glover Park. Jeez, Ross kids could walk to Garrison or Frances-Stevens. Or are those art teachers not good enough for Ross?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But perhaps by announcing in September for the next school year that's exactly what they are doing. Giving schools the time to plan.

good point - in the past this has always been a frenzy in February or March when it was nearly impossible to plan for fall.

Exactly. It cannot exactly come as a shock given they said last year it was cancelled. Then they only made a commitment to one year and basically already said it would not be continued.

I trust that the PTAs at these schools will be able to advocate with they principals to set up good arts programs.

It is impossible. You can't do it without an art room. At least according to what an "art class" universally looks like in DCPS, you can't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But perhaps by announcing in September for the next school year that's exactly what they are doing. Giving schools the time to plan.

good point - in the past this has always been a frenzy in February or March when it was nearly impossible to plan for fall.

Exactly. It cannot exactly come as a shock given they said last year it was cancelled. Then they only made a commitment to one year and basically already said it would not be continued.

I trust that the PTAs at these schools will be able to advocate with they principals to set up good arts programs.

It is impossible. You can't do it without an art room. At least according to what an "art class" universally looks like in DCPS, you can't.

Nothing is impossible. Go see how Marie Reed is doing it with Fillmore teachers coming to them. In swing space nonetheless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But perhaps by announcing in September for the next school year that's exactly what they are doing. Giving schools the time to plan.

good point - in the past this has always been a frenzy in February or March when it was nearly impossible to plan for fall.

Exactly. It cannot exactly come as a shock given they said last year it was cancelled. Then they only made a commitment to one year and basically already said it would not be continued.

I trust that the PTAs at these schools will be able to advocate with they principals to set up good arts programs.

DCPS has been trying for years to find alternatives and there are plans b, c, and d. The problem is that every time they try to transition, the Save Fillmore camp rises up with tales of past glory and cries to preserve their culture and history.

If Fillmore as a nonprofit can't be financially viable with just Stoddert and Key kids, then that's their problem to fix.

[Anonymous]

Once again what they are expecting is that the parents will end up raising money to fix a problem... I.e. Cutting the decent arts program at Filmore - then expecting that the key and stoddert families will kick in when they are given less than decent options - basically because they know they will.

[Anonymous]

The horse is out of the barn on this one. Time to come up with new ideas instead of demanding Fillmore stay open.

[Anonymous]

Fillmore only goes to Marie Reed for pre-k. K-5 go on the bus to Fillmore.

[Anonymous]

Fillmore is just a crutch for lazy administrators. Other schools which are Have a lot more kids and have far less square footage make it work. Even without a kiln or studio space the kids get a lot of art with a teacher at their school.

Unless Fillmore is gone these schools have no incentive to actually implement art in their own school.