Students hold signs to protest potential cuts to music and theater programs during Tuesday's Santa Barbara school board meeting.
Students hold signs to protest potential cuts to music and theater programs during Tuesday's Santa Barbara school board meeting. Credit: Joshua Molina / Noozhawk photo

Silence speaks a thousand words.

It was supposed to be a routine performance to kick off the Santa Barbara Unified School District board meeting. Superintendent Hilda Maldonado typically invites a musical or arts performance to show off the good work of the district.

This time, however, the kids had their own performance in mind.

Maldonado introduced the group as “performing a song from ‘Hadestown.’” They stood in front of the audience, stared at the board members with straight faces and a microphone in front of them. When it came time to perform “The Wedding Song” from “Hadestown,” one of the students pulled a sign that read, “If you defund the arts, there won’t be any.”

Then, they stood there for nearly four minutes, while only the instrumental background music to the song played. The board looked on, and with every second that passed, they realized there would be no arts on display at this meeting.

The district is under fire after sending 85 layoff notices to teachers, setting off a firestorm of opposition. At the March 12 meeting, dozens of music and arts teachers spoke out against the board. On Tuesday night, the opposition grew to include math teachers who have received layoff notices.

The number of teachers who will be laid off is expected to go down, but the district won’t know its final budget numbers until May.

San Marcos High School student Chloe Voigt says being involved in choir and theater has changed her life.
San Marcos High School student Chloe Voigt says being involved in choir and theater has changed her life. Credit: Joshua Molina / Noozhawk photo

“When I was in second grade, I was introduced to theater, and without having access to theater at an early age, I would not be who I am today,” said Valentina Thomas, a junior at San Marcos High School. “Being involved with these programs has not only helped me create connection with my peers, but has given me a change to be myself and find a supportive community to call home.”

Many of the music and theater students and parents gathered outside the school board meeting an hour before it began to hold signs on the street and play instruments. Some of them stayed outside when the board meeting began and continued protesting, as people in their vehicles honked their horns as they drove by.

Chloe Voigt, a ninth-grader at San Marcos High School, said it is “hurtful and offensive” that the district is trying to “strip away our education by removing our elective options.”

Voigt said that at a time when there is so much concern about mental health services, the arts are healing.

Teacher York Shingle, who says he received a reduction in force notice, tells the Santa Barbara school board on Tuesday that it's awful not knowing what he will do next year.
Teacher York Shingle, who says he received a reduction in force notice, tells the Santa Barbara school board on Tuesday that it’s awful not knowing what he will do next year. Credit: Joshua Molina / Noozhawk photo

“We have therapy built into our school day,” Voigt said. “Therapy for me is walking into the choir room. Therapy is the fact that 50% of my school day is doing what I love and learning how to pursue my choice of career.”

She said choir and theater have made her who she is today and that “the arts is such an important part of our world and the free education our schools offer us is life-changing. Don’t take that away from us.”

York Shingle, a teacher at McKinley Elementary School, received a “reduction in force” notice last month. He said the board typically has more money in its budget than it lets on.

Santa Barbara school board member Celeste Kafri says the board needs to treat teachers with respect and shift its focus to make students come first.
Santa Barbara school board member Celeste Kafri says the board needs to treat teachers with respect and shift its focus to make students come first. Credit: Joshua Molina / Noozhawk photo

“When we get these reports that tell us we’re going to have no money in our reserves, so we need to do all these layoffs, I don’t believe it because of historical data,” Shingle said.

He said the budget problem is a spending problem, and the board members need to ask difficult questions about the budget rather than accepting it from the district staff.

“It feels absolutely awful to not know what I am doing next year,” Shingle said. “It’s a big deal to me. It’s a big deal to the students who I won’t get to support next year.”

The board took no action, but board member Celeste Kafri addressed the audience. She has been the most vocal about sparing teacher cuts and instead making reductions in management and administration.

Kafri read a page from the book “Great on Their Behalf: Why School Boards Fail, How Yours Can Be Effective.”

Students kick off Tuesday's school board meeting by standing in silence instead of singing to make a point that the arts need to be funded.
Students kick off Tuesday’s school board meeting by standing in silence instead of singing to make a point that the arts need to be funded. Credit: Joshua Molina / Noozhawk photo

“I feel like when we budget, that really is a moral document and it reflects the priorities of the district,” Kafri said. “We as a school board are up here to serve our community and represent what our community’s priorities and values are, and I think we’ve heard loud and clear that our high-schoolers want to have robust access to electives, including the arts.”

She also said, “Our teachers are telling us that we need to treat them with respect and treat them with humanity.”

— Noozhawk South County editor Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.