Media Release 

The attached resolution was adopted on March 8th. Many of you may remember the Arts Education bills I wrote and shopped to various legislators over the last three years. Well…I arranged to meet with Representative Christine Rolfes as soon as she was elected and she agreed to start working towards strengthening our state’s commitment to the arts in schools. She didn’t feel she had the support for the bills at that point but instead got us hooked up with a legislative work group with Rep. John McCoy studying CTE and the Arts in Washington public schools. That group and conversations with Rep. Rolfes led to this resolution. The plan is to have more work groups between now and the next session (which I also hope to be a part of) and to also use this resolution when addressing the State Board of Education on what they are doing to strengthen the arts in our schools.

I have already sent this on to my school board and asked them to view this resolution as an opportunity to develop a specific, detailed plan, with cost analysis, for truly comprehensive, sequential k-12 arts education—with specialists in the elementary schools-- in our district. The last part of the resolution clearly states that the legislature will seek to partner with districts to ensure access to arts instruction as core curriculum during the school day. Let’s give them clear plans on how to do that and what it will cost…and then make them stand by their word. J

Yours-
James

PS- I know the SBE is having an important hearing on March 26th. I can not be there because I will be at the NAEA conference in New Orleans (I know, poor me! J)---I hope we can get a strong Arts Education group to be there, this resolution in hand, to make sure the arts are at the front of the line for the board.

James C. Andrews
Arts Department
Kingston High School
26201 Siyaya Ave NE
Kingston, WA 98346
(360) 394-1266