Fayette School Board follows directive, cuts art classes at Lexington elementary school
At a packed meeting Monday night, Fayette County School Board members affirmed a Cassidy Elementary school council’s decision and the superintendent’s agreement to cut art courses for budget reasons.
The vote was 3-1 with board members Tyler Murphy, the chairman, Amy Green and Marilyn Clark voting to affirm the decision to cut the art classes. Board member Amanda Ferguson voted no, and Board member Jason Moore was not at the meeting because of a work conflict.
District spokesperson Dia Davidson-Smith has said the district has not cut its budget. She said student enrollment numbers and projections directly impact the staffing allocation made for each school. If the student enrollment number goes up, the staffing allocation also goes up. If that student enrollment number goes down, so does the staffing allocations. School decision-making councils make decisions about staffing allocations.
A school board attorney told board members they did not have the choice to reverse the school council’s decision to cut art classes. He said they could affirm it or tell the school council they had concerns about the decision to cut art courses
Murphy told the Herald-Leader after the meeting, “We had to think about the precedence we were setting as a board.”
“Our scope in this matter was very narrow” under both state law and board policy, he said.
Murphy said such a decision could lead to the School Board telling school decision-making councils what to do.
“How do you distinguish between expressing a concern and issuing a directive?” Murphy said.
Parent Ansel Elkins, who had taken an appeal to the School Board, said the decision was upsetting because she thinks it was within board members authority to decide on the art cuts and they “took the easy way out.”
Her revised appeal, filed in late April, said the decision to cut art classes lacked educational merit and violated district policy, among other issues.
In the last few months, the Cassidy school decision-making council had voted to eliminate the courses and Superintendent Demetrus Liggins had denied an appeal from parents.
Liggins told the Herald-Leader after the meeting that students have to have a certain amount of “core curriculum” classes. Those could include reading and math and science.
“There’s just not enough time in the day” for students to take advantage of every single elective class offered to them, Liggins said.
Parent James Carr said in an interview that no one was asking for additions to the school schedule.
The art class was “already there and they just cut it, got rid of it,” said Carr.
The issue of school councils making course cuts has galvanized the Lexington community, which supports a PTA effort to raise funds for art classes at Cassidy.
Prior to the board vote, a roomful of parents and community members spoke at a public forum, asking Liggins why a school district with so much money was cutting courses such as art and chorus.
