State funds allow Vallejo schools to expand arts programming

VALLEJO – The Vallejo City Unified School District has expanded its visual and performing arts programing for the second year in a row thanks to receiving several million dollars in state funding from a 2022 state proposition. 

The new funding means almost all district students can now take more art classes taught by credentialed art teachers.

In the past, high school students only had the option to take music, visual art, or media classes. Now they can also choose to take classes in dance and theater. Hogan Middle School used to only have a band class, but now offers visual art and theater classes too. 

District elementary schools also have expanded their art education. Almost all elementary school students now receive instruction at least once a week in music, dance, theater, or visual arts from a credentialed arts teacher, according to VCUSD Director of Visual and Performing Arts James Orlando. 

That’s different from how the arts had been taught before last school year, when elementary school teachers who were not necessarily trained in the arts taught a block of arts instruction, or the district hired teaching artists for short term contracts which generally lasted 10 weeks. 

Orlando said he thinks having dedicated arts teachers in schools for the entire school year offers students more consistency. 

“The teachers build relationships with the students and the community,” Orlando said. “And having them there year round means they can really go in depth.”

The new programming has been made possible due to California voters passing Proposition 28 in 2022, which allocated roughly a billion dollars a year in arts funding to public and charter California schools. Orlando said the district received about $1.5 million in arts funding during the 2023-24 school year and another $1.5 million last school year. The district expects to receive about the same amount this year. 

After taking a year to plan how it would spend the money, VCUSD started hiring more arts teachers last school year. It’s now more than doubled its amount of arts teachers over two years. This year, the district has 22 arts teachers, and plans to hire one more. Of these 22 teachers, eight are funded entirely through Proposition 28 dollars and six are partially funded with these dollars.

The number of district schools supported by Proposition 28 arts funding has increased this year as well. While the district allocated these dollars to 10 district schools last year, this year the district allocated the funds to all eligible 17 schools.

The majority of district schools serving transitional kindergarten through eighth grade classes now have classes in multiple arts disciplines. Glen Cove Elementary has visual art, theater, and musical theater classes while Steffen Manor Elementary has music, dance and theater classes.

The only lower grade schools that haven’t hired arts teachers are Cave Language Academy and Vallejo Charter School. According to Orlando, the district is still trying to hire a Spanish and English speaking art teacher at Cave, which is a bilingual school. He said Vallejo Charter will be contracting with choir and visual arts programs but not hiring credentialed teachers directly.

The new programming has allowed Hogan Middle School art teacher Jill Faison to pursue her passion. Even though she has a background in arts education, Faison had been teaching English and history at Hogan for nine years because there was limited arts education funding.

“The fact that it never could happen was very frustrating and made me sad,” Faison said. “Knowing our student population I could see clearly that it would be very beneficial.”When, in the spring of 2023, her principal told her that the school had funding to finally add an arts class, Faison said it was “like a dream come true.”

Orlando said he is excited about the Proposition 28 funding, and sees it as “an opportunity for us to put the arts back into our school in a meaningful way.” He said he thinks arts can help students with confidence. 

“Art education can be a great equalizer,” Orlando said. “Not every student is great at everything but by having different opportunities for students to be successful at school creates a wonderful rich experience.”

Orlando also said that arts education is good for students’ cognitive development, and can help them excel in other subjects, as there’s data showing it develops different areas of the brain. One study from the National Library of Medicine suggests that music helps students’ verbal memory, second language pronunciation, and reading.

Faison said that last year students in her class surprised themselves, as students with very little exposure to art ended up making artworks that far exceeded what they had thought they were capable of making at the start of the school year.

“It creates a tremendous boost of confidence that literally spills over to other classes,” Faison said. “I know this for a fact from talking to my colleagues that experiencing positive things in the art room translates, and they’re a little more willing to take a risk in another subject.”

Faison also thinks art classes are good for students’ social emotional development, as they can express themselves, and “feel seen, heard, and validated.” Having experience in teaching multiple subjects, Faison said that state mandated education standards made her other classes “very mapped out” and “just short of being scripted.” But art education allows her more flexibility to create lesson plans and her students to have more time doing self directed activities. 

“The art curriculum is really about them,” Faison said. “There are requirements but they get to decide how to meet them.”

The less rigid environment allows her to walk around the room as students are working, and check in with them about how they’re feeling, which helps create a calm environment, Faison said.

“A lot of students told me at the end of last year,” Faison said. “I look forward to art class because it is so peaceful.”