GALVESTON — Public school district trustees, responding to dwindling participation in fine arts programs and a shrinking high school marching band, agreed to pump money into the fine arts departments, even though the district is facing a budget shortfall.
Still, the move could be a little too late to help the 2008-09 marching band, which has been a primary concern for district officials and trustees.
In recent years, the island school district has seen a noticeable drop in students participating in all fine arts programs, from prekindergarten through 12th grade.
Ball High School’s marching band, for example, once had 300 members in the 1970s. At band camp this week, there were fewer than 30 members in the marching band and no band director. After Kristina Levias resigned in the spring, the district hired a director with 21 years of experience, but he resigned after a week on the job.
The district is still looking for a band director even though school starts Aug. 25 and the first Ball High School football game at home is Sept. 5 against La Marque.
Stephen Duncan, who was hired in March to oversee the district’s troubled fine arts program, helped run band camp this week.
Trustees have made bolstering the district’s fine arts program a priority, which is why they hired Duncan even while they worried the district was becoming too top-heavy.
Duncan has already made some noticeable changes in the department, including creating an online gallery of students’ art works and featuring marching band music on the district’s Web site.
Trustees have also agreed to spend $132,590 to improve the fine arts program in 2008-09 even though the district is facing a budget shortfall close to half a million dollars.
Duncan said that money, if approved by trustees when they pass a budget in September, will be used to buy new band instruments, including oboes and bassoons, color guard flags, art supplies, music software and eight high-quality LCD screens for art, music and theater classrooms.
“If I’m showing a Picasso, I want them to see a Picasso,” Duncan said.
The district also is implementing a fifth-grade band for the first time in years, Duncan said.
District officials fretted about the declining participation in fine arts programs so much so that they spent $1,500 for an audit of the department.
The audit revealed that budget inequalities from campus to campus, scheduling, lack of administrator participation at fine arts events and a fine arts curriculum not aligned properly so students transition seamlessly from grade to grade contributed to the fine arts programs’ problems, among other things.
Some theorize that declining enrollment — 2,000 students have left the district in the past decade — coupled with limited time allowed for electives, has drawn down the number of students participating in the fine arts districtwide.
