Rogers City school board cuts K-12 art program

Two teachers have taught art at Rogers City High School for the last 48 years: Bob Gertz and Kelly Phelps. Gertz, who worked for the district for three and a half decades, was replaced by Kelly Phelps 14 years ago. Monday, Phelps learned the Rogers City Area Schools Board of Education would eliminate his job as a cost saving measure. The board cut the art program and reduced the foreign language classes from two to one, with only Spanish classes continuing next year. ?I don?t think anybody has been laid off with that amount of time,? said Phelps Tuesday. ?I don?t think this school has ever not had an art program.?

Along with the financial implications of having to start at a lower step on the salary scale in another district, if that is the direction he heads in, Phelps is disappointed for the students in whom art means so much.

?I HAVE A lot of students that this is the only positive reinforcement they get all day long,? said Phelps. ?I have a lot of kids that are real good in art and not very good in anything else.? ?I know I?ve heard a lot of people are going to take their students somewhere else if there is no art in the elementary, and probably in the high school as well.? The board authorized the administration to reduce the teaching staff by six positions last month, and through a process that took several months, the decision was made to eliminate the K-12 art program, along with the French classes. Phelps learned of the recommendation by the administration within in the last few weeks.

?I looked at how can I cut and affect the least amount of people,? said principal Deb Jones. ?With economics the way it is, I had to look at how I would cut something when looking at the elective programs.? Jones explored cuts to art, vocal music, and the instrumental band program. Jones said art is incorporated into classroom activities at the elementary level, but not music.

?THEY ARE not teaching art the way an art teacher would teach it, but they are doing hands on art activities with kids,? said Jones. ?They don?t do hands on music activities. So I thought, if I want kids to still have art and music, then I will take art out of the elementary.? If art would have continued at the high school with the current circumstances, three of four teachers would have had four teaching assignments instead of five assignments. Along with a steady decline in the number of high school students over the last four years, she said the number of high school art students went from 80 to 90, down to about 40. Jones also said there were not enough students taking French, making the foreign language offering a candidate for the chopping block. She said there were 11 students this year and four students looking to take advanced French next year. Those students will be given an opportunity to continue French studies through electronic media and will be eligible to earn credits. Before the 5-0 unanimous vote, elementary art teacher Diane Smuda told board members about an upcoming art exhibit in Alpena later this month. She also expressed her thoughts on the potential lost opportunities for students if art were discontinued.

“I would be very sad if our student

s, and I’m sure they would be very sad as well, if they do not continue to have the opportunity to take art at the elementary level.? She said her daughter is a studio art major in college. ?She had the privilege and opportunity to take art classes when she was a student, so it was very important that she had the opportunity,? said Smuda, who is expected to have a different teaching position in Rogers City next school year. Superintendent Paul Mancine said the decision was not desirable, but a necessity. But circumstances could change, and if they do, art is one of the first things he would like to bring back.

For Phelps, who has nine years of seniority over the next closest teacher on the layoff list, he may go back to school to earn a degree. He would like to stay in the area since he owns a home in the area. It has not been an easy situation for Phelps, or any of the other teaches on the layoff list.