Fayette superintendent denies appeal over arts cuts; chorus loss fought at second school

Parents upset over art cuts at Lexington’s Cassidy Elementary School said they are going to take complaints to the state and to the local school board after the superintendent denied their appeal.

Parent Ansel Elkins said “the next step” since Superintendent Demetrus Liggins denied the appeal is to appeal to the Fayette Board of Education and also file a complaint regarding violations of the Open Records Act and Open Meetings Act with the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability.

Families and students at multiple Lexington schools are opposing proposed course cuts made by school councils, which are currently making staffing and budget decisions.

Parents at the school next door to Cassidy, Morton Middle, are appealing to the council on its decision to eliminate chorus.

Cassidy received the highest possible rating in the school statewide testing system in 2023. Morton received the second highest rating, according to the Kentucky School Report Card.

“We ask for transparency in decisions that involve proposed curriculum changes that impact the education of our children,” the Cassidy parent appeal to Liggins said.

The lack of effective communication on the part of the principal and council in its proposal to eliminate standalone art classes “creates distrust among the parents and students that the SBDM (school based decision-making) Council is acting in our best interests,” the parent appeal said. “There was never a chance for the Cassidy community to give its input on the curriculum changes.”

District officials are working on the fiscal year 2025 budget for the 2024-25 school year. The total working budget for fiscal year 2024 was $836,026,245, as of January, officials said

FCPS spokesperson Dia Davidson-Smith has previously said the district is not cutting the budget. She has said student enrollment numbers and projections directly impact the staffing allocation made for each school.

If the student enrollment number goes up, so does the staffing allocation. If that student enrollment number goes down, so does the staffing allocations.

A Kentucky Department of Education school council newsletter said last week that to determine the allocation to school councils for staff, the district must provide sufficient funds based on the projected full-time equivalent enrollment for the upcoming school year.

Schools generally have a council that includes teachers, parents and an administrator.

Artist-researcher Alex Caldwell, of Lexington, is a graduate research assistant at the University of Kentucky College of Education, on the National Advisory Committee of the Teaching Artist Guild and previously ran the education programs at the Lexington Philharmonic.

“It’s disappointing to see schools in FCPS considering cutting arts programs,” Caldwell told the Herald-Leader Thursday. “Cutting arts programs in schools has been proven to lead to lower test scores, lower scores on social emotional metrics, and overall less student thriving. It’s really counterintuitive to the goals of the district.”

Caldwell said such a move is often the first course of action when addressing budget issues. Arts in school have enormous value for a very low financial cost, he said. Public schools are in tight places financially and people should continue to advocate for increased public funding for education and the arts.

Cassidy

The Cassidy parent March 29 appeal is one of at least two filed to the school council about the decision to eliminate art courses.

It said the school council is in violation of the Kentucky Open Records Act by not regularly publishing the Council’s agenda and meeting minutes for several consecutive months.

The school council is in noncompliance with the Kentucky Open Meetings Act by not publishing their Council’s agenda at least one week in advance, the appeal said

“We were never notified that it was going to be discussed,” said Elkins. She said things can’t be made right by retroactively posting an agenda after the meeting happened.

“I understand and acknowledge your concerns regarding the lack of transparency and communication surrounding the SBDM Council’s decision-making process,” Liggins wrote in his denial of the appeal. “The issues you raised are significant and warrant careful consideration. This is the time of year when schools receive their student projections for the next year, and staffing decisions are made based on that.”

Liggins said in his denial that issues surrounding the posting of agendas and minutes have now been remediated. Reconsideration of the decision to cut standalone art classes was placed on the agenda for the March 25, 2024, meeting and 14 members of the public spoke, he said.

The council again voted to cut standalone art classes. Even if the families had notice of a prior meeting discussion and attended and participated in public comment, there “is no reason to believe that the Council would have voted otherwise,” Liggins said.

“While I have the authority to overturn the SBDM Council’s decision, it is important to me to uphold democratic principles and respect the autonomy granted to council members by the Kentucky legislative body,” said Liggins.

He said there was an alternative plan to incorporate art into the curriculum in a manner different from having a standalone art class. Liggins said although he was denying the appeal, “I firmly believe that providing an arts education class to our students is incredibly beneficial, and the removal of this option is unfortunate, and one I am sure the Council did not take lightly.”

Parent Virginia Kerr Zoller said she is concerned that supplemental art classes after school will not be available to students who ride the bus, which means it won’t be equitable.

Morton

Davidson-Smith confirmed that Morton Middle School‘s school council cut chorus. In responding to questions about Morton, she said program cuts are made at the school level.

“The school decision making council had three options but made the decision to cut this program,” Davidson-Smith said.

Retired Morton teacher Mark Russell said at least one parent had appealed the chorus decision to the council.

Russell is concerned technology education will also be cut. Russell said the decisions are forcing parents to reconsider whether they want to send their students to Morton or seek education at magnet or private schools.

“Once a school starts cutting programs, it often becomes difficult to stop. I argue that by removing chorus and technology education, the (council) is opening the door to further evisceration of a once, thriving healthy top performing middle school,” he said.