Here’s how I intended my letter to begin:
Voices have been silenced on our campus and it’s not the singers, it’s the dancers. With the cutting of the PHS dance class our student dancers no longer have access to their favorite means of expression: the art of dance.
But the world got a little bit brighter on Friday, May 10 when I learned the PHS dance class may not be cut.
The only thing is, I’m not quite sure precisely what is happening with the dance program. I love communication, and with less than three weeks before the start of summer, I’m still wondering, and I’m not alone.
Here’s what I do know as the PHS dance teacher of the last 30 years: The dance class straddles both the PE and the Visual and Performing Arts departments. This year 79-80% of the dance students are enrolled for art credit, while 19-20% are enrolled for PE credit. Despite this the dance class was slated to be cut under “Physical Education”.
The week of February 5, on the heels of Cabaret’s closing, many of us leapt into action when we learned of multiple slated cutbacks on the district’s list including, but not limited to, special education, visual arts and dance. I encouraged my dance and musical families, and anyone else I could reach, to write letters in support of dance. This involved social media posts (something I’m not prone to) and upon encouragement, joining the Piedmont Families Facebook group in order to reach more people. One of the pleasant surprises of this venture was connecting with students I haven’t been in contact with for over 20 years and even graduates of the dance program who preceded my tenure at PHS whom I’ve never met.
At the Feb. 14 school board meeting our librarian, Ms. Levenson, who has a dance background, stood with me as I spoke, and despite our over 60 letters in support of dance, the school board voted to authorize cutting dance at the March 4 meeting. While some cuts in other departments and disciplines had been rescinded prior to March 4, dance had not, so we fought on. Countless hours have been spent fighting a proposed cut that should never be made. The result is sheer exhaustion, and I’m sure I’m not alone.
PHS plans to run sections in the 24-25 school year that are smaller than next year’s dance class. One might argue the district has every right to run the classes they want. In actuality, providing pre-K-12 dance education is a requirement of the state.
It’s not entirely clear why the district was considering cutting dance in the first place, which is reflective of the current culture that results, unintentionally perhaps, in a general disregard for teachers, and in turn impacts students and their families. This is a culture in which staff members work very hard and are enormously stressed fighting for jobs, fighting for fair wages, fighting for programs. We want all of our time and energy to be devoted directly toward our classes and our students and not struggling to retain programs and acquire information that should be quickly and clearly communicated.
Throughout this battle, when the dance class was in the most danger it’s ever been in, I did a fair amount of reflecting. I thought about the artistic voices I’ve seen throughout these decades of dance, I thought about the inclusivity of dance (at PHS), and I thought about how grateful I am for those who showed support for dance. But the dance program’s richest legacy, and the one I’ll always be most proud of, is its culture of belonging.
While I don’t always recognize the direction PUSD is headed, while I don’t always understand the decisions that are made, and while I’m not sure I’d choose to send my kids here if they were about to start school again, I choose to have hope that the district will make positive strides. We have to be better about committing to creating choice, opportunity, and equity for our students as this is what will draw families here. It’s not acceptable for anyone to feel marginalized on our campuses.
I wish I could be in a more celebratory mood after the news I received on May 10. If dance was never going to be cut, that’s fantastic, but then why did we have to endure these last few months of tortuous uncertainty? The dance program’s situation is a microcosm of what has been happening in the district, and I wish everyone could have been spared the anguish of these past several months and more. They’ve had enough.