Letter to the Editor: Please Support the March 27-28 Fine Arts Showcase & School Bond

Editor:

My purpose in writing this letter is two-fold.  First, it is to invite and encourage the Mercer Island community to attend the Fine Arts Showcase 2012 on March 27th and 28th at the Mercer Island High School.  This event celebrates all the fine arts performed and created in the Mercer Island School District. It is also the primary fundraising event to raise money for the ART BUS; a project which will fund a converted  MI school bus into a mobile elementary art classroom and provide a certified art teacher. All of this is hopefully just a stop-gap measure to provide some sort of art curriculum and space to our elementary school students, while the fate of our schools remains undecided.

This brings me to the second reason for my letter; I recently moved from Connecticut and moved to Mercer Island seduced by its reputation for excellent schools. I was frankly shocked to discover that not only did none of the elementary schools have either dedicated art classrooms, nor certified art teachers, relying instead on haphazard instruction by parent volunteers, and often relegated to the hallways for "classes". This is unconscionable! To not include the visual arts as a core part of our elementary curriculum goes not only against state mandates, but denies our students the means to encourage their artistic and creative side which is an important component in almost any future endeavor or career. 

I am dismayed at the crowded, outdated and frayed physical condition of all our schools. Given what I know now, I frankly would have gone a bit further east to an equally excellent school district which has invested in new state of the art schools attractive to both teachers and students.

Our education here is undoubtedly excellent, but our schools have run their course.It is now incumbent upon us to reinvest in our schools, to create spacious, modern and thoughtful campuses in which all academic and artistic disciplines can be accommodated, and in which students and teachers can thrive. If we do not now confront this situation we risk the erosion of our academic excellence and its reputation. Our youth will suffer the consequences, but so too our community, as potential home buyers will be seduced by other choices, and we will be the poorer for it.  

Please support the BOND and vote YES.. it will benefit us all!

Thank you,

Marina Moscovici