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District reports steady participation in fine arts, pilots STEAM and planetarium offerings
Summary
District staff told the Racine Unified School Board that K-6 fine-arts offerings meet DPI requirements, FIAD is now scheduled year-round, and the district is expanding high-school visual-arts pathways, robotics and planetarium programming while seeking to increase AP/digital arts opportunities.
At the March 2 work session, district staff summarized student participation in fine arts, FIAD, drama, visual arts, STEAM (including robotics) and esports across grade levels.
Miss Decker said most K-6 fine-arts offerings are required by the Department of Public Instruction and that elective choices increase at the middle- and high-school levels. She told the board the district had corrected FIAD scheduling so it now runs throughout the year rather than only a semester.
"We got that fixed," she said, describing the FIAD adjustment and noting administrators are working through middle-school schedules. Decker also described efforts to expand high-school visual-arts pathways, with the district considering digital-arts, 3D printing and AI tools and coordinating with IMAT and Gateway to align course sequencing and encourage AP participation in future years.
She highlighted STEAM programs such as robotics and updated planetarium programming led by the district's STEAM science coordinator, Abby Forest, who organized options for teachers; staff said the planetarium offering was in a pilot year and expected to grow.
Board members requested school-by-school breakdowns of which classes and how many minutes per week are offered (for example, which schools offer weekly music classes for elementary students) and staff agreed to provide that detail for a future report. The item will be placed on the consent agenda for the upcoming business meeting.
