Performing arts teachers take center stage in budget debate

By Laura Longley

The show must go on—even if Loudoun County fails to increase high school teachers/directors’ stipends for their extracurricular contributions to their students and community.

At this time of year, when school boards and supervisors begin to grapple with the realities of next year’s budget, invariably they’ll hear passionate pleas from parents, teachers, and performing arts students about “unfairness” in funding for the arts versus athletics.

On Jan. 25, the Loudoun County Public School Board indeed heard about the value of the arts in terms of children’s educations, mental health, creative growth, critical thinking, skills development, not to mention revenues to the County. But this time they were also reminded that they should check their email inboxes for the 67-page document sent to them that morning.

Beginning last spring, after working with students to mount musical productions while coping with COVID, a small band of teachers began working on a data-driven report that has delivered some compelling findings on “Internal Equity.”

Expect a drama to unfold in the coming months as the School Board begins to balance the budget.

 “I am a newer director who started this job during the virtual year of 2020–2021,” says Katie Hudson of Broad Run High School. “I have no booster program, in my department, it’s just me. Though I live five minutes from work, my normal working hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.”

Tony Cimino-Johnson, Theater Teacher/Artistic Director at Rock Ridge High School, is the number cruncher behind the Internal Equity study. Recently, he ran new data using updated data from the FY23 budget proposal and compared spending per school program and per student for football, lacrosse, running, and theater.

Football: Coaches’ stipends cover Aug.-Nov. for about 100 students. The stipend for a head coach is $7,828; two assistant coaches are budgeted at $6,053 each, a Junior Varsity head coach receives $6,053, an assistant $4,220. A freshman head coach gets a stipend of $6,053, and an assistant $4,220. FY22: $393.20 per student. FY23: $404.80 per student – an increase of $11.60.

Lacrosse: 1 season with 100 students at $32,220—$322.20 per student.

Running: 3 seasons with 150 students at $39,305—$262.33 per student.

Theater: Approx. 11 months teaching, mentoring, and managing all performances, rehearsals, and field trips. Total: $12,876 for up to 150/200 students. The per student increase over FY22 is $2.30. The proposed stipend for a theater teacher is $6,953 plus an additional stipend called “Artistic Director” at $5,923.

Some Loudoun schools charge theater students extra fees of $75 to $150 for participating. Marching band students pay upwards of $300.

Tuscarora High School Theatre Arts Instructor Justin Daniel points out that the stipend increase theater teachers are proposing also would help music teachers who volunteer to work on after-school musicals for free.

Even if Loudoun County fails to deliver the performing arts teachers’ funding proposal, other school districts across the country are ready to take up the cause with the aid of the Loudoun teachers’ report. That 67-page document has already been requested by administrators and theater teachers around the country who want to replicate it in their own counties. It also will be shared with Americans for the Arts, Educational Theatre Association, and other national and state organizations.

Here in Loudoun, the report’s authors intend to press their case for change in this funding cycle. As Cimino-Johnson points out, “If LCPS is ready to fully fund interscholastic sports, they should be prepared to fully fund the fine and performing arts, as those programs engage roughly 45 percent of our student population. It’s not okay that our parents and families have to pay fees to participate in the performing arts while our athletic families receive a free pass.”

To learn more about Loudoun high school theater programs and find a link to the Internal Equity report, visit Cimino-Johnson’s site at www.rockridgeperformingarts.org