"We had no materials. I had to create my own curriculum," Longshore said. "We had textbooks from 1966, records on vinyl, not even tapes."

But with the help of the nonprofit organization Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley—a program established to raise arts appreciation—the school has the necessary funding.

Booksin Elementary, which applied for a Cultural Initiatives grant in 2001, was awarded a $10,000 annual grant and will continue to receiving funding until 2006.

Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley granted the school and 140 other public elementary schools in Santa Clara County $10,000 each per year during two rounds of funding. These grants include a teacher liaison and instructional training in the arts.

The schools receive $10,000 for four of the five years, but the liaison and technical support are for the full five years.

"After that, the schools are on their own," said John Kreidler, executive director for the foundation. "They've graduated."

The first round of grants and on-site assistance began in 1999 with 11 school districts enrolled in the program. Another 11 school districts applied for grants in the second round of funding, for the 2001­06 period.

Booksin Elementary is the only Willow Glen school enrolled in the program.

"There are a number of reasons why schools don't apply for the funding," said Cultural Initiatives Communications Coordinator Jennifer Leclerc. "Sometimes the school doesn't have anyone who is able to complete a grant application. In other cases the school doesn't have an arts program and doesn't know how to start the process."

Only four San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD) schools are enrolled in the program—Los Alamitos, Cory, Booksin and Simonds elementary schools.

Karen Fuqua, SJUSD spokesperson, said that the four district schools received help with their grant applications because the schools have active parents' groups that campaigned for the arts programs.

Though individual schools receive $10,000 a year, districts can receive up to several hundred thousand dollars. For the 2001­06 round, the Cupertino Union School District received $200,000.

Booksin Elementary is using its grant money and assistance to improve and expand its visual arts and music programs. The school is also investing in art supplies to be used over the next several years.

According to Kreidler, the city of San Jose adopted a plan to raise cultural awareness throughout Silicon Valley during the administration of former San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer.

Already working toward this goal were the city's office of cultural affairs, which works out of the city's arts commission, and two nonprofits, Arts Council Silicon Valley and Community Foundation Silicon Valley.

In 1997 Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley was created to compensate for the areas these three groups don't cover, Kreidler said.

"We were set up to take responsibility for balancing the city's cultural plan," Kreidler said.

The organization's overarching plan is to raise cultural and arts awareness in all aspects of Silicon Valley life, but its Creative Education Program (CEP) specifically addresses arts education.

In 2000, Gov. Gray Davis approved legislation mandating that the arts be included as one of the "core subjects" in the state's education code, equating arts with math, science, history and language in level of importance.

Specifically the California Education Code requires instruction for children in kindergarten through sixth grades in the "visual and performing arts, including instruction in the subjects of dance, music, theater, and visual arts, to be aimed at the development of aesthetic appreciation and skills of creative expression."

Arts education was considered expendable with the passage of California's 1970 Ryan Act, which eliminated elementary school teacher training in art. The passage of Proposition 13 in 1978 further reduced funding for art teachers and programs.

To compensate, schools had to rely on alternative means for funding. Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley partners with up to 30 businesses, individuals and foundations, including Adobe Systems Inc., the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The David and Lucile Packard foundation donated $2.1 million in March 2001.

Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley school grants coordinator Lilia Aguero said the $2.1 million will go toward paying the cash grants for schools enrolled only in the second five-year round, but will help pay for technical and professional development for all schools in both five-year rounds.

For the first year of the second five-year round of funding, which began in 2001, Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley earmarked $770,000 out of $1.9 million in grants to elementary schools.

The organization is anticipating a third five-year round of funding, but Hammer said the organization is not sure when that will be because of the valley's tough economic climate.

"What it comes down to is how much money we can raise," said Dana Powell, director of the CEP.

Hammer adds, "We would like to have an art program in every school, especially elementary and middle schools, throughout Santa Clara County."

But it depends on how successful the organization is between now and June of 2003, Hammer said. The organization's primary focus is on keeping promises to other schools that are already enrolled.