Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Spin Cycle: Student troupers put on an open-air performance at Lincoln High.
Student troupe seeks a home
Lincoln High School lacks funds despite proven value of arts
By Chantal Lamers
Smack in the middle of Lincoln High School's campus is a room that could tell many stories. If it could speak, it would tell tales of Sadie Hawkins dances and senior proms and students sweating over pre-SAT exams. The room could go on and on about teenage boys and girls munching their lunch every day. It could sing about the plays and musicals that are performed there 15 times a year.
That's a lot for one room to know. And that's exactly how administrators, teachers and students involved from the neck up in Lincoln High School's visual arts department feel.
Practically famous around town for its talented actors, dancers and musicians, the department's students are some of the best in their league. This August, a group of them will perform the musical Once on This Island at a prestigious theater arts festival in Scotland.
The annual Edinburgh festival hands out invitations to the best and brightest professionals from the London Theater to New York's Broadway. Organizers even select a handful of high school groups--and Lincoln's made the cut. In addition, these students managed to nab the No. 1 high school performance spot at 8 p.m. on Saturday night.
These teenagers love the stage, which is what's causing so much distress around campus. There really is no stage, no theater. The Academic/Visual and Performing Arts Magnet school, like many, is the victim of California's inability to fully fund the arts in public schools. Instead, the theater is a testing facility, a place for school dances and a cafeteria.
Additionally, theater groups like Lincoln's are usually self-supported. Money to put on shows and pay for costumes and sets comes from student fundraising or from parents' pockets. Local businesses and community members write checks to support plays. Even the plays' profits are used to pay bills that accumulate during production.
Because Lincoln is a magnet, desegregation school, each performing arts department receives money from the state annually. However, the funds usually come in small amounts, typically about $2,500, that are used to upgrade costly equipment such as lights, microphones, shop tools or speakers. In addition, the school gives the department $400 to pay for classroom supplies.
One high school in the district actually has a theater. And even with the slow revival of arts in schools, the money to build a theater isn't in the district's piggy bank.
The decline of the arts in public schools began over a decade ago. It started in 1978, when California voters passed Proposition 13. The proposition equalized property taxes, and the state received less and less money from home and business owners.
That meant less money for public schools. Before the cutback in property taxes, 70 percent of school revenue came from the state to help fund programs, including art, music and drama. After Proposition 13, the state cut that amount to 30 percent.
The '80s recession left California's public schools on the brink of disaster. Administrators were forced to take arts programs out of the curriculum and cut back to a five-period day.
Studies prove that participation in art and music programs improves a child's early cognitive development and basic math and reading abilities. The arts help raise a child's self-esteem, SAT scores and self-discipline, and teach them how to work in teams. Children involved in the arts are more likely to graduate from high school and go to college.
Though no one denies the importance of visual arts programs, schools struggle to support them. In June 1997, San Jose Unified voters passed a bond for $165,000,000 to improve school facilities across the district. However, with 32,000 students attending 30 different schools, the money is desperately needed to repair dilapidated schools, not to build new theaters.
Several years ago, the Lincoln Foundation was started by Lincoln parents, faculty and community members to acquire funds that would one day build a theater. However, foundation members can't write checks for all the money needed.
In June, the district plans to remodel Lincoln's "multipurpose" room. District planners predict they'll spend about $300,000 on the multipurpose room for new floor tiles, paint and windows. District planners told Lincoln's principal, Oreen Gernreich, that they'll make it into something of a theater, too, but only if the foundation matches that $300,000 by the summer deadline.
Lincoln's theater program director, Charles Manthe, doesn't believe the foundation will come up with the $300,000, since only about $20,000 is tucked away toward the theater.
Since the multipurpose room has so many uses, theater students must build sets and take them down between each production. Seating is also a problem. Hundreds of metal folding chairs are set up by performers each evening before audiences can fill the rows.
Students now work all 72 lights on stage. The analog lighting system they use is so outdated, about 40 years old, that Manthe goes on scavenger hunts to replace broken plugs. The digital system the department dares only to dream about would enable it to use over 196 lights and to control each individually.
Furthermore, students have no dressing rooms, no backstage bathrooms and no storage space for props, sets or costumes. During plays, students change in hallways and classrooms. The school's orchestra can't even fit in the so-called theater anymore.
But the possibility of converting the multipurpose room into a more theater-friendly room makes Manthe smile. The thought of permanent seating and updated lighting would save him and his students a lot of headaches.
Manthe said the substandard facilities are a shame and force students to solve problems they wouldn't have to under normal circumstances. "It can create an unnecessary amount of frustration," Manthe said.
Rosalia Novotny, Lincoln's Dance Department chairperson, said teachers have suffered from burnout as a result of working around so many obstacles to produce shows. That and the lack of commitment from the district to build a theater, she believes, has led some teachers to throw in the towel.
Regardless, teachers like Novotny and Manthe put in their overtime. "The kids put in a lot of extra work," Novotny said. "They know what they want for their end product."
Despite the tendency to become tired and get discouraged, Novotny said, teachers always make do for the sake of their students. She's skeptical that a Lincoln theater will be built in her lifetime, but continues to plug away. "We all perform for a little penny every day to keep our programs going," she said.
There is a little light at the end of the tunnel for Lincoln's visual arts programs. With funding from the city of San Jose, district planners are renovating a small theater on the old Hoover campus just blocks away from Lincoln. The price tag, about $500,000.
San Jose Unified School District board member Carol Myers said the renovation was possible with the city's help. The catch is that the theater will not only be used districtwide, but available for community use, too.
Myers said that when the district officials asked the city to lend a hand, city officials wanted to know how their money would benefit residents. Myers contended that the theater must be a community resource.
The soon-to-be-remodeled San Jose Children's Musical Theater seats no more than 200. Lincoln administrators were hoping to seat quite a bit more and preferred to seat them on its own campus.
But Myers said it's just too difficult to build a theater for only one school. "Nowadays you can't do anything separately for just one school," she said. "We've got to share. Sharing is big these days."
Although there's a lot of money in Silicon Valley, there just isn't enough in its schools, Myers said. California ranks 41 in per pupil spending. While these San Jose Unified schools are in the center of Silicon Valley, one of the richest metropolitan areas in the world, the district seems to live from paycheck to paycheck.
Bill Erlandson, SJUSD director of external programs and community development, spends a majority of his daily grind writing grant proposals to businesses and state and federal agencies. Grants range from those for after-school programs, for drug-free schools, professional development grants for teachers and even SAT preparation grants.
Despite Gov. Gray Davis' professed commitment to schools and San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales' support to improve schools, public schools aren't what they were decades ago.
Today, public schools provide many needs of children that they didn't in the past, Erlandson said. Public schools provide health needs, such as teeth cleaning and immunizations, as well as counselors and tutors.
Because the government has cut back on the services it once offered, much more responsibility falls on the shoulders of public educators.
Even though public-school facilities continue their slide toward less-than-mediocre, voters don't deem education important enough to spend tax dollars on it. In the March 7 election, California voters voted against Proposition 26. The measure would have reduced the two-thirds vote requirement for passage of local school bonds to a majority vote.
It's that lack of understanding and lack of compassion for public schools that make it impossible to keep the arts thriving, Erlandson said. Despite studies which prove that arts are beneficial, everything comes down to a budget war.
It also may be the reason music programs, art classes and theater performances just don't make the top of the list these days. But, said Erlandson, it's not just a lack of money that keeps the arts from making the comeback they so much deserve. "The underlying problem is a lack of understanding. Arts are the things that keep them [kids] off the streets. The arts will nurture them."
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
