- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Konocti Unified awarded $1.6 million grant for elementary music program
LOWER LAKE, Calif. — A major new federal grant is giving the Konocti Unified School District the resources it needs to build a new music program for elementary students.
On Dec. 8, at the last regular school board meeting of the year, Katherine Wiley, who teaches and serves as band director at Lower Lake High and the Konocti Education Center, gave the trustees the good news.
Wiley said the district has received a $1.6 million Assistance for Arts Education Program grant from the U.S. Department of Education to bring music back to the elementary schools.
Konocti Unified received one of 27 grants — eight of them given to sites in California — awarded through the program this year.
“I’m really excited,” said Wiley, now in her seventh year with the district.
She said she hopes the effort will build up a program that’s serving the district long after she retires. “I still have 35 years,” she quipped, adding, “I’m super stoked.”
In an interview with Lake County News, Wiley said she’s unaware of the district ever receiving such a large arts-related grant before.
“It’s a pretty big deal,” Wiley said.
She said Konocti Unified’s “On-Ramp” grant is to be dispersed to the district over four years. The plan is to have the new music program ready for the start of the 2022-23 school year.
“There are four primary goals of our grant,” Wiley said.
She said those goals are to hire a full-time elementary music teacher, offer training and continued support for up to 32 arts integration specialists, create an online arts education curriculum that elementary school teachers can use throughout the year and bring in community artists to help supplement those arts integration lessons.
She said the district has about 2,000 students in grades kindergarten through seventh grade, with four elementary schools and one arts education magnet school, Konocti Education Center, or KEC.
An opportunity arises
Wiley said the grant was brought to the district’s attention in the spring by Robert Bullwinkel and Kim Morin of Big Idea Consulting, a firm that helps schools and communities work together to bring high quality arts education to their students, according to the company’s website.
Big Idea Consulting has been working with Konocti Unified for two years, and Wiley said Bullwinkel thought the grant would be a good fit for the district.
The grant aims to help rural districts, which serve at-risk youth, that want to create a rigorous arts program, “Which is everything we were about,” Wiley said.
Wiley said the application was due in April, which gave the district a really short turnaround time. However, Bullwinkel did most of the work in writing the grant, with district staff providing the needed information.
They needed to get letters of support and provide information about the student body, such as the fact that 36% of the district’s students fall below the federal poverty line, with 84% qualifying for free and reduced lunch, Wiley said.
Wiley said the rest of the grant preparation process included laying out what the program would look like and what the district’s qualifications for a successful program would be.
They tied the grant to the English language reading standard, as many of the district’s students read below grade level. Wiley said they believe rigorous arts education improves reading scores.
Wiley said they found out in mid-October that they had received the grant. They’re now in the planning process, which Wiley called “very exciting.”
The next steps in creating the program include getting input from teachers, parents and the community at large, she said.
The district will host its first informational meeting on the program from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 13, in the Carol McClung Conference Center at the Konocti Unified School District Office, 9430-B Lake St. in Lower Lake.
Wiley, who is the program manager and will be responsible for making most executive decisions, said that as they begin to solidify what the On-Ramp program will look like, the district plans to host an additional informational meeting and celebration of the arts sometime in late spring.
At that event, Wiley said community members will be invited to participate in arts activities while learning about the opportunities their students have in the coming school years.
She said there isn't a date or location set for that event yet, but it will be held sometime in the evening to allow more community members to attend.
“After that, we’ll be looking for volunteers to serve on the steering committee,” Wiley said. “We want that to be a collection of teachers, support staff, administrators and community members.”
Wiley said that the steering committee will consist of about 10 people who will serve throughout the length of the grant, be the feedback group, brainstorm ideas, be proactive problem solvers and “really make sure this thing takes off.”
She added, “They’re the foundation.”
Wiley said district Superintendent Becky Salato will have a role in making sure everything is running smoothly.
Building a new program
The music program the district is building will focus on the elementary grades because, between KEC and the high school, “We have a pretty vibrant arts education program,” said Wiley.
KEC is excellent for middle school level students and the high school has a wide variety of classes, she said.
Part of the motivation for the grant is that Wiley said teachers noticed artistic students coming into high school who were lacking foundational skills.
As an example, she said they were seeing music students who haven’t seen a quarter note and don’t know what it’s called.
Like many school districts, Konocti Unified was impacted by the financial impacts of the Great Recession, Wiley said.
“We had a pretty solid elementary music program before the recession,” she said. Then, when cuts to staffing happened, the elementary music teacher position eventually went away.
A couple of years ago the district tried to have an elementary school music position again but it didn't continue after the first two years, Wiley said.
Wiley said a lot of that had to do with how the effort was rolled out, with that teacher expected to serve all four elementary schools at the same time and only getting the chance to see students once every other week. “It was a very difficult task that the person was asked to do.”
The new music teacher position the district wants to create will divide their time between Burns Valley and Lower Lake Elementary, and also will focus on forming relationships, Wiley said.
She said that position is to be funded in part by the grant for the first few years, with a commitment from the district to pay the base salary when the grant is done.
There also will be an arts integration component. Wiley said they can teach music, visual and drama standards while still doing what is considered a more standard curriculum. “How to do that though is a little tricky,” and not a lot of teachers have that arts integration background.
So the development of 32 arts integration specialists will take place over the summer. Participants in the program — which Wiley said will be for existing teachers and volunteers — will learn how to integrate the arts with other subjects in a meaningful way. There also will be a person on site to support teachers in art integration.
In envisioning a successful program, Wiley said they want every student to enjoy it, and for students entering middle school to know what they are passionate about and what they want to pursue for electives both at the middle and high school levels.
She said they want to encourage literacy, and see students reading and comprehending at higher levels. They believe that arts integration will help students that feel separated from material to feel connected again.
They want to see standardized testing scores rise along with a significant increase in students reading at or above grade level, she said.
Wiley said they also want the community to feel more welcome at school sites by putting on performances and exhibits of student art work on a regular basis.
She said most of the pieces of the program should be together by August, in time for the school year to start. By that point she expects the elementary music teacher should be hired.
Community members are invited to the Jan. 13 meeting to learn more about the program and how to get involved.
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