On Thursday, October 17th I attended the retirement party for Wendy Campbell, the former art teacher for two of the elementary schools. We are missing her very much. The parents at our school have put together an art enrichment program to make up for the loss of Wendy. It has taken 35 volunteers to make up for this one teacher! And as I am one of the volunteers I can assure you that our level of knowledge of art education is nowhere near as sophisticated as hers. Although I do actually have a teaching certificate, it is for science education grades 5-12, not elementary art education.

I am also aware that in order to make up for the loss of our one librarian, we are finding it necessary to bring on at least 20 parent volunteers. Not only that, but we are trying to replace the lost Physical Education periods with volunteers. And of course we still use volunteers at lunch, recess, and for classroom and clerical work. At our school we have a total of 335 families at the school. Assuming this is happening at all the schools, on the order of 1 of every 5 families are now in the elementary schools volunteering their efforts to give their kids something less than they had last year.

Even if we manage to keep up this level of volunteering service this year, it is doubtful that we will be able to keep this up for several years running. And it is not only the elementary schools that are suffering from the lack of teachers. My assistant art class volunteer had been able to join me in the classroom as she was one of the language teachers let go from the high school. However, she decided that she was more in need at the high school than in the art room. So she is now volunteering to teach a few kids the foreign language she used to get paid for teaching just so they can graduate with the credits they need. Such dedication! But oh so many fewer of our children are getting the benefit of her teaching.

I have been told that now there are many high school students with 10 study hall periods in their schedule (many are so-called "directed study" periods, but who are we kidding?) Without real, paid, professional teachers giving our students the direction they need to master the subjects they are to be taught, we are not giving our students the kind of education they need to graduate and move on to jobs or college. I have heard that there are students with even more than 10 hours of study halls in their schedule. This loss of teachers is a real tragedy we are experiencing today in the Arlington schools. No wonder we were featured on Nightline.

I would like to thank each and every parent volunteer and teacher who is working under these terrible conditions we are experiencing in the Arlington schools. I would like to encourage those of you who are not yet volunteering in the schools to find out where you can help out. There are so many needs being unmet, especially at the high school where many electives were eliminated. Get involved. And try your hardest to figure out how we can make sure the revenue situation in Arlington doesn't get any worse.

There is nothing left to cut in our school budget. Just ask the kids. One positive thing from this experience for me at least is that each week I am in the art room I can see the joy the kids get from being able to express themselves visually. I have already been told by one child that art is his favorite class. I wish I could express to all of you without school ties, the tragedy we are undergoing in our schools.

Sincerely,
Colleen Kirby