Co-founder: Duxberry Park arts program shapes the lives of students. I fear that will end

Loren Bucek is retired from Columbus City as a dance education teacher, K-5 teacher, and K-5 literacy specialist. She also is project director of Global Water Dances Columbus.

Duxberry Park Arts IMPACT (Interdisciplinary Model Program in the Arts for Children and Teachers) Elementary School celebrated its 40th Arts Festival in May.

It had been years since I’d visited the school that shaped my entire professional education career. As I entered the building, a flood of extraordinary memories swelled inside of me.

I was one of the school’s co-founders and its first K-5 dance educator. As I walked through the halls filled with art made by seven-plus generations of K-5 students, I felt peace, love and joy. I was home.

Duxberry Park Arts IMPACT Elementary School is a very special place and a hidden gem within the Columbus City Schools. It is also a school that has been neglected over the years and is currently under-enrolled.

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One significant change for the 2022-23 school year is that its 40-plus-years, full-time arts education team is now assigned to two schools – Duxberry Park (three days) and the Columbus Gifted Academy (two days).

I fear that this decision – to decrease the arts team’s physical presence and instructional time at Duxberry Park – is problematic and will lead to the gradual undoing of the Arts IMPACT program.

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Though Duxberry Park continues to shape the lives of its students through personally relevant, culturally responsive learning with developmentally sound instruction, I fear that much will change without the full-time presence of its arts team.

They are the backbone of the program.

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To be sure, splitting instructional time between two schools will deeply affect arts discipline-specific proficiency of the Ohio Department of Education Learning Standards. Less time at school means that there will be fewer integrated arts sharing/programs to illustrate student learning.

Moreover, the arts team will be not have the time to meet with K-5 grade level teachers (in either school) to deliberately plan, teach and co-teach integrated and interdisciplinary instructional units and lessons to their students. To me, it feels as though this is a major step in dismantling the program.

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Duxberry Principal Margaret Berrios Brown needs our community’s support to restore confidence and make tangible gains for the continuation of this arts-integrated and interdisciplinary educational program.

Now is the time to reinvest and build upon the Arts IMPACT educational philosophy while introducing new learning features that support the global community that now calls Columbus its home.

It is my sincere hope that one day soon we can come together and help  Berrios Brown and her experienced staff find more ways to let the Columbus community know about Duxberry Park Arts IMPACT Elementary School.

Duxberry Park Arts IMPACT Elementary School is a wonderful place to learn. It is for everyone who believes in the power of the arts to imagine possible worlds, deepen understanding, and transform lives.

. Duxberry Park Arts IMPACT Elementary School is a place where people want to be.

Loren Bucek is retired from Columbus City as a dance education teacher, K-5 teacher, and K-5 literacy specialist. She also is project director of Global Water Dances Columbus.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Opinion: Duxberry Park Arts school needs community support to survive