The excuses disguised as explanations provided by the board and superintendent are ridiculously out of touch and show how little creativity we have working for our students at an official level.
Credit: AP2Photography
Credit: AP2Photography
These decisions are having an emotional toll on our students who were already burdened by the state of our country. From Covid-19 to social/civil unrest our children are suffering and to take away their peace in art and in community is reprehensible.
"It used to be that our leaders and educators told us to never say I can't. Now our leadership and officials expect us to accept I can't as a reason for not fulfilling their commitments to our
community and most of all, our children."
Dayton is the only district in the area to make these deep cuts. Huber Heights recognized their students pain and organized neighborhood marching band performances. Why can’t our system work for our students in this way?
The excuse of lack of art supplies is eye rolling.
The magnet programs at Stivers do not come without a cost to parents, we pay magnet fees, we pay for art packs. We pay for these items the same way others pay for their school supplies. We buy them ourselves.
Instruments could have been issued with ready packs and chrome books, sheet music distributed through email, and Zoom meeting rehearsals held.
It used to be that our leaders and educators told us to never say I can’t. Now our leadership
and officials expect us to accept I can’t as a reason for not fulfilling their commitments to our
community and most of all, our children.
‘We will not stand to see the thing we love come to burn to the ground around us.’
DOTTIE BUERGER
Stivers is undoubtedly a school for the arts. You can tell this just from looking at the crowd of students waiting to be picked up by their parents outside at 3:05 p.m. every weekday.
And that’s why we’re here. That’s the reason why we were drawn to this school and the reason why we stick around. Because of our arts, our passion for our medium that runs so deep in our veins that it can’t be separated from us.
Art is more than visual. Obviously lines and strokes of paint on paper hold a much deeper meaning than you realize at first glance, but there are many more forms. Dance, music, acting, and everything else: they’re the backbones of what art really is.
I know for myself that I hold a deep passion for my own works, drawn and written. And I know I wouldn’t be at Stivers if that passion weren’t obvious. And the teachers at Stivers have taught me so much. There are things I use even without realizing where I picked them up.
Stivers classes and its students have given me so much confidence in my work, and the confidence of others.
Credit: AP2Photography
Credit: AP2Photography
These classes are what drew me to Stivers to begin with. And if it weren’t for them I would never have met my friends, my real friends. And they too share the same passion I have for their own magnets.
This passion, it’s one I’ve seen in everyone. I see it in the eyes of the dance and orchestra students the day before their showcase. I can hear it in the voices of the theater students as they announce their next show to the class, I can see it in the motions and faces of the art and writing students as they jot down whatever stunning new idea has burned its way into their mind.
These passions light a fire that you can feel the warmth of every time a student gets to show off a unique talent. These talents can’t be fed to burn brighter the same way anywhere else.
We, these students, whose lives have been forever changed by the bonds we’ve forged and things we’ve learned, will not stand to let this passion-fueled fire burn out. We will not stand to see the thing we love come to burn to the ground around us.
Dottie Buerger, 15, is a sophomore focusing on creative writing and visual arts at Stivers School for the Arts. Sharon Buerger is her mother.