Declining enrollment and the upcoming course selection process, from Feb. 12-16, threaten low-enrollment electives, some of which are funded by Proposition 28. Passed in 2022, Proposition 28 funds sections of Commercial Art, A Choir, Advanced Treble and Advanced Drama Honors at MVHS, all of which currently have fewer than 20 students per section, another term for period.
Choir teacher Lofn Young has consistently had under 10 students per section in their two Proposition 28-funded courses, A Choir and Advanced Treble. With FUHSD’s history of cutting courses due to low student interest, they fear that the district will cut their elective sections in the future.
Despite the Music Department receiving Proposition 28 funding, Young has qualms with the district’s handling of the money. Young says former FUHSD Superintendent Polly Bove made it possible for MVHS to have 10 sections of Music courses. Upon Bove’s retirement, funding for two sections of Music was cut. The money from Proposition 28 funded those two sections, bringing MVHS back to 10 sections of Music. Elective teachers like Young had hoped the supplemental money could have been spent purchasing new equipment or hiring new staff, as opposed to supplanting the cut funding.
“The way that Proposition 28 was introduced as a law when it was signed was supposed to be supplemental money for arts programs to be able to thrive in the conditions that are currently marginalizing them,” Young said. “Unfortunately, a lot of school districts are finding loopholes to allow them to supplant the money as opposed to supplement the money.”
With the funding spent elsewhere, both Young and Drama teacher Hannah Gould feel overworked despite the extra funding.
“I have eight different people’s jobs as a full-time teacher, director, producer, and lighting, sound, set, and costume director and designer and marketing executive,” Gould said. “I have to take time out of the school day. I have to plan extra field trips, I have to figure out ways to design promotional materials. That’s something I don’t get any compensation for, but if I don’t do it, then I don’t have a job.”
Gould also has concerns about the distribution of Proposition 28 money. She says she received only $3,000 of extra funding, thousands less than what other elective sections received. The Music and Drama departments pooled their Proposition 28 money to replace failing equipment used by the general school population, including the soundboard in the auditorium, leaving no money for staffing. Gould attributes these struggles to a lack of transparency regarding Proposition 28 from the district, as most decisions regarding the distribution of funding happen behind closed doors.
“It feels very strange that there is no opportunity to give input,” Gould said. “I’m sure they’re gathering information. I’m sure they’re looking at data and numbers and talking to assistant principals and principals, but there’s no conversation with the actual teachers or people who are involved in the departments.”
In addition to the declining enrollment, music classes, as well as other electives, already face a course allocation system that works against them: the six-course selection schedule disincentives interested students to register for their classes, and it requires a 36:1 student per section ratio for Music courses. Young says Music courses are among the only courses on campus mandated to have 36 students per section. Many other courses on campus only require 32.5 students per section or under, according to Young, with the exception of P.E. being 40 students per section. They say this is an equity issue they have been attempting to bring awareness to during meetings with the teacher’s union, the Fremont Educators Association (FEA). However, both Young and Gould feel as though the union has not heeded their concerns.
FEA Chief Negotiator and U.S. History teacher Bonnie Belshe stands against lowering the student-to-teacher ratio. Belshe strongly believes this money is doing the art department a service by supplementing funding and providing additional Music sections, a stark contrast to the way Young views the funding as supplanting the district’s budget cut a few years ago.
“Every department across the board has lost sections,” Belshe said. “Music for a long time is the only department that didn’t. What Proposition 28 has done is, rather than extra sections that don’t have the students to fill it, we can pay for those district-wide with Proposition 28 money to have that. So it’s supplementing, not supplanting.”
As Chief Negotiator for three years, Belshe has continuously heard music teachers’ demands to lower the 36-student-per-section ratio to 32. Even so, on behalf of the union, she believes that in the face of declining enrollment, now is “not the optimal time” to put into effect that change, which Belshe says reflects the same perspective of Union Representative Council meetings — where FEA union representatives from each FUHSD site vote on such issues. Even if the union were to move forward on changing the ratio, Belshe says the number of Music sections would not change, and instead, this could increase the number of sections that FEA has to pay for.
“We have this other state funding in Proposition 28 that is available that is helping to protect these jobs,” Belshe said. “We’re so appreciative of being able to have that and use it to increase the availability that we can have. We would not be able to have a choir of six kids or of eight kids without this Proposition 28 funding. But lowering that ratio doesn’t increase the number of students that are in those classes.”
Unlike Belshe, Young believes the union and the district misunderstand how funding from Proposition 28 is supposed to be handled. In the event that the student-per-section ratio is changed to 32 for Music, Young believes this could yield at least one more section and shield the department from overstaffing.
“It’s looking at the formulas and looking at the structure that we’re working within that starts us underwater further than everyone else, for us to make it up to even just to get the same amount of money as everybody else,” Young said. “We have some systemic things that we can change to at least get us off the ground at the same place as everybody else.”
Young wants their concerns about Proposition 28 and section allocation to be recognized as equity issues to combat systematic disadvantages. They champion this for all elective courses, advocating they enjoy the same stability as general education.
“I’m trying to look at the curriculum through the same equity lens that we’re looking at other equity issues such as race through,” Young said. “I want more people to make that transfer so that we can all feel like we’ve got a fair shot, that we’re working in a system that cares about everyone and makes sure everyone feels belonging.”
Ultimately, Gould hopes for a greater level of acknowledgment from the district regarding elective teachers’ struggles. She wants them to recognize the department’s funding, staffing and equipment needs.
“It seems like they don’t know what we do here and that they’re not really bothering to find out,” Gould said. “We’re finally getting the space remodeled, so there was some attention paid, finally. But it does feel like too little too late. It seems like there is a willful lack of understanding of the needs for staffing. I’ve tried to communicate that to so many different people in the district, and it does feel like people are not hearing that and have not stopped by to try to understand the problem.”
In light of her department’s ongoing effort, Gould stresses the importance of arts education, citing a cultural underappreciation for courses such as Drama. Young agrees, wanting students to recognize how successful they could be pursuing humanities fields rather than limiting themselves to STEM options.
“We’re in a community that really values a lot of money, stem and engineering,” Young said. “That’s another big barrier that we’re kind of working against. ‘Oh, my parents are not gonna really let me pursue music, this is not going to be lucrative for me.’ How do we market our course well enough to show that that’s not real? How do we convince folks that that’s not true when it’s so deeply ingrained in thousands of years of that being the narrative? Music has definitely caught up, especially since technology has come into the industry so intensely. There are so many opportunities and so many directions for people to be successful and have very fulfilling lives in the humanities.”
