Rallying To Save Arts Education Part 1

It's been a full advocacy week in San Diego since I wrote last Thursday. Richard Kessler posted on his AJ blog yesterday that the Board of Trustees of the San Diego Unified School District voted to keep the Visual and Performing Arts Department intact. Here's what we did in the short-term to convince them to do it.

Thursday evening those of us monitoring the situation on behalf of the San Diego Regional Arts and Culture Coalition had gotten little indication the majority of the Board would vote to keep VAPA intact. Three of the five members had voted earlier in the spring to include VAPA on a list of cost cutting solutions - despite the fact that parents had responded to their budget survey with overwhelming support for the arts.

With only four days (two of them on the weekend) to save VAPA from budget cuts, we decided more pubic pressure was essential. Thursday evening we started discussing the idea holding a rally the night before the Board meeting. At 8pm, I confirmed my Youth Symphony production staff could provide chairs, music stands, a PA system, and staffing. (I hope you never believe anyone who says youth symphonies aren't supportive of school music programs) The next morning we worked to confirm some teachers would be able to attend the rally with students prepared to perform. We knew student performers were the key to excellent media coverage. By the end of the day on Friday, we only had two confirmed teachers but assurances that more would come through. This was enough to start contacting media and promoting the rally.

Two of the local public radio stations agreed to run PSA's all weekend announcing the rally and include details on their websites. We emailed word of the rally to every arts constituency we could find and called on them to continue emailing the School Board. We also directed people to join our Facebook group for updates. Before the day ended, we contacted District staff at the central office to let them know what were planning. They were very helpful. Saturday and Sunday were devoted to creating a production plan and prepping the media release for distribution Monday.

Monday morning some of our team had a meeting with one of the Board members we were trying to convince and his comments were much more positive than in the weeks before. Likewise, another of the worrisome Board members began emailing a response to those that had written him indicating that he viewed VAPA favorably. This raised our hopes that continuing our efforts would bring positive results.

At 3pm I met my staff Production Coordinator at the rally site and introduced him to the other organizers as well as the District's facility staff assigned to assist us. When I left at 3:30 to attend my Youth Symphony board meeting there we no more than five people at the site. When I returned two hours later I found three mobile TV news crews still there with one broadcasting live a live report. I also heard tales of a packed lawn, giant puppets, jazz ensembles, string quartets, drummers, banners and cars honking in support. The third Board member of questionable support had even attended and asked for an opportunity to speak. Her comments were not picked up by the media however.

You can see how well the rally turned out in this news report that led the Monday evening broadcast on the local CBS affiliate. (Sorry it inlcudes a 15 second ad) Tomorrow, I'll continue with details on the Board meeting itself and how we continued there to convey our message of support for VAPA.