Summit School District board poised to approve more funding for elementary fine arts, social studies curriculum materials

The Summit School District’s board of education is poised to approve hundreds of thousands of dollars in spending for fine arts and social studies programs at the district’s six elementary schools. 

During a May 2 board meeting, K-12 Literacy Coordinator Shannon Adam presented two proposals that need board approval — one to increase spending on fine arts materials and another to adopt two new digital learning platforms for social studies classes. 

The efforts are part of the district’s regular curriculum cycle review, which is also currently targeting updates to preschool math and middle school social studies aimed at better aligning classrooms with new state standards and improving dual-language learning capabilities. 

For fine arts, a review committee found that current spending on curriculum materials is between $1 and $2 per student, according to Adam. 

The limited funding has challenged teachers to be able to provide specialized resources in their classrooms or even meet some basic needs like instrument repairs, Adam said. 

“We wanted to recognize, too, that for a lot of students, the fine arts classroom is sometimes the only exposure they will ever have to arts education, or arts in general,” Adam said. “And so, if that’s going to be our classroom, we want it to be of the highest quality we can provide.”

A review of current resources found that the greatest needs were for materials including high-quality paper, paints, glazes, clays and pastels as well as instruments from recorders to ukuleles. 

Officials are proposing $60,000 in new spending to meet fine art classroom needs, with $10,000 going to each elementary school, Adam said. 

“What we know is that as we are putting funding towards the visual arts, what we are also helping to do is build literacy skills, math skills, social studies and science skills and we’re really starting to emphasize social-emotional development with the arts classroom,” Adam said. 

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Board members said they were happy to see more investment in fine art materials while also pointing to the need to ensure funds can support classroom needs long-term. 

Board member Johanna Kugler asked if there were opportunities to look at grants for arts supplies moving forward, adding, “We’re talking about paper and markers and art supplies that should be a given in all of those classrooms.”

Kugler continued, “I applaud the teachers for making it work all of these years and I am appreciative that we are doing it but I’d love to see if we are able to get grants making forward to see if we can think any bigger of what they need in arts and music.”

For social studies, a review committee focused on the need to update to revised state standards aimed at including more diverse perspectives in history and civics as well as a new focus on personal financial literacy. It also looked at shifting verbiage to be more student-centered rather than lecture-focused.

After reviewing several different learning packages, officials landed on two that they are recommending for adoption. One is Newsela: Social Studies and the other is Brainpop Combo, both of which are fully digital and offer dual-language content, a resource library and various lessons, games and assessments. 

Adam said it will cost $170,000 for a three-year subscription for both platforms. 

Kugler asked if officials were making sure that the recommended platforms were aligning with the district’s efforts to bolster a number of programs, from International Baccalaureate to dyslexia screenings and intervention techniques. 

“We’ve spent a lot of time and energy and money doing our (International Baccalaureate) audits, dual-language audits, adding more dyslexia screenings … and intervention learnings for children,” Kugler said. “Are we making sure 100% (the recommendations) really are aligning with all the feedback we’ve gotten over the last year, two years and it’s going to meet those needs.” 

Adam said both social studies platforms provide accessibility for different learning levels in addition to language learning opportunities, with Newsela supporting English and Spanish and Brainpop supporting English, Spanish and French. 

“There’s a lot that we can do for literacy and readability for these platforms,” Adam said. 

The board of education is slated to approve the recommendations for fine arts and social studies at a board meeting later this month.