MPS committee hears art education report as community urges restoration of cut visual-arts positions

Milwaukee Public Schools administrators presented a semiannual art education report to the Board Committee on Instruction that outlined staffing levels, instructional strategies such as sketchnoting, and community partnerships — and drew public pleas to restore recently cut visual-arts coaching positions.

The report matters because the district said two of four visual art teacher-leader positions were eliminated under the superintendent’s reorganization plan, a change parents and arts partners say threatens teacher retention, partnerships and student access to arts learning cultivated under the 2020 referendum funding.

Paulette Chambers, chief of staff, introduced the item and said the Fine Arts Office would answer questions about staffing and programming. Deborah Bowling, the district’s fine arts manager, said the arts office currently supports teachers with two visual-art teacher leaders and two arts-integration teacher leaders and that teachers earning licensure while on the job require substantially more support.

Bowling provided staffing figures: during the 2024–25 school year the district had 148 art positions filled with arts educators and used two board-approved vendors, Arts at Large and T Bay, to fill an additional 14 vacancies. For 2025–26 she said…