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Teacher says arts funding puzzles Prop 28 rollout; parents ask for ParentSquare meeting notices
Summary
An East Whittier art teacher urged the board to clarify where arts funding — including Prop 28 dollars — is going and highlighted an alleged $2,000 allocation across ten schools; a separate commenter requested using ParentSquare for meeting notices, which staff said would incur no additional cost.
During the public-comment period at the East Whittier City School District meeting, art teacher Mary Contreras urged the board to clarify arts funding and how the district is using Prop 28 dollars.
Contreras said that at her school she was given a budget of "$2,000 for next year" for the district's elementary art program spanning ten schools and said that amount worked out to "just shy of 47¢ per student for supplies." She told the board she had preserved a ceramics program by bringing a kiln from home when a school kiln failed and asked where arts funding would be allocated going forward and whether positions currently paid from general fund sources are being shifted to Prop 28.
Earlier in the public-comment portion, a resident asked the district to use ParentSquare to send meeting-notice alerts and links to the agenda because Instagram reaches only a limited set of families. A district representative told the board there would be "no additional cost" to send meeting notices via ParentSquare and said staff planned to begin doing that in August.
Board members did not take immediate action on Ms. Contreras' request for an accounting of arts funding allocation during this meeting but the comments were part of the public record ahead of LCAP and budget approvals that the board took later in the session.
