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RSU 40 art teachers urge clearer budget asks as classes outstrip seats
Summary
Art teachers told the RSU 40/MSAD 40 school board that elementary students receive about 24 hours of art per year, per-school supplies average roughly $400, and staffing cuts have left high-school art with about 2.5 positions while hundreds of students sign up for classes.
Anthony Lufkin, an art teacher at Madonna Valley High School, told the RSU 40/MSAD 40 school board that elementary students typically receive art instruction “once a week for about 40 minutes,” which amounts to “about 24 hours” of instruction over a school year. He and colleagues described a program that uses National Core Art Standards and emphasized project-based learning across grade levels.
The teachers said budgets and staffing are constraining what they can offer. Presenters reported that elementary art supplies average about $400 per school and noted rising material costs; that funding level limits the number and type of projects teachers can run. They also said the district’s high-school art program operates with roughly 2.5 positions while demand outstrips capacity: presenters estimated about 400 student signups for art classes but room for only about 200.
Board members and attendees pressed for concrete numbers the board can use in the budget process. A resident who identified herself only as a parent said she was “angry for you” after hearing the staffing and access issues and urged the board to make the program’s needs visible to voters. Presenters asked the board to encourage teachers to bring student work and specific budget requests to future budget hearings so the public can understand proposed increases.
Presenters described a range of student opportunities that the district supports despite constraints: district- and community-hosted exhibitions at libraries and galleries, a Watershed Center ceramics juried show (two students had work accepted this year), and an annual Empty Bowl supper that raised about $2,200 this year to support local food pantries. They also described efforts to have students document work in digital portfolios and to expand studio production and media-literacy offerings that integrate arts with technology.
On staffing, presenters said an itinerant position serving Friendship Village School appears to be eliminated or absorbed by another school, creating scheduling pressure for remaining itinerant roles and complicating recruitment for fractional schedules. They suggested the board consider options such as converting part-time roles or finding alternate funding sources (grants, boosters, donors) to restore course sections and district-wide exhibits.
The board did not take formal action on the presenters’ requests at the conclusion of the presentation; members said the information would inform the upcoming budget process. The meeting proceeded to the next agenda items after a period of public comment and discussion.
