The advocacy group Arts for LA is pushing Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy for more details on the district's arts plan - the broad strokes of which were released last year, without financial details.
"[T]he time to reinvest in advancing 21st Century Skills for all students through arts education is now," Danielle Brazell, executive director of Arts for LA, wrote in a letter that was faxed to the district Monday morning. "Please let me know when the detailed budget will be presented to the Board."
The arts plan, released last summer, outlines a new vision for arts education in the district. Among many initiatives, it calls for training classroom teachers to incorporate the arts into lessons on subjects like English and science.
Some teachers interviewed by KPCC have said they've seen little implementation of the new plan since its release. The district has been running trainings to boost teacher knowledge of arts integration techniques.
A detailed funding strategy for the new arts plan was due when the plan was completed, but the district has yet to release it.
The arts budget was expected at Tuesday's board meeting.
But Jeff Crain, L.A. Unified's board secretariat, said the arts budget was not on the agenda and not expected to be discussed by the superintendent during Tuesday's school board meeting.
Marguerite LaMotte, a former school board member who died unexpectedly in early December, had been overseeing the committee that was set to handle the arts plan's budget.
The board has been juggling her duties as it moved to fill her seat. The board voted Jan. 7 to hold a special election to replace her for the remainder of her term.
