Minutes 05-29-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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My name is Erin Dangler and I attended the budget hearing last night to support fully funding education. I actually had planned to speak, but did not get on the list and at the end when it was offered for people to speak up, I feared I would have been the dorky kid who had one more question when the entire class was ready to go out to recess. However, I still want to share my thoughts if you will so indulge me. My husband, Brian, and I have two children who have attended the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools since elementary school. Both students will be attending Carrboro High School next year. And, yet, oddly, I am not writing to you as a parent. I am also an Arts Educator and a Teaching Artist in both the Orange County and CHCCS School districts. Additionally, I have held a small, co-curricular position at Carrboro High School as the choreographer of the musical productions for the past three years. And, yet, oddly, I am not writing to you as an Educator. I am actually speaking to you tonight as one who owns and operates a small business in Orange County. I run a program called Broadway Bound that teaches the art of musical theatre to elementary and middle school children. It has been my great joy to live in an area where the schools have abundant arts programs and I have found that I have become an accidental partner to the school systems. The 450 students in grades 1 and 8 whom I teach every year in the private sector become better prepared for the middle and high school theatre and music programs for which they are entering. The district arts teachers and I become collaborators, as I talk to them about students that may be entering their classrooms and allowing their programs to flourish. The current students in the school theatre programs also become interns for me as they help run the shows we put on and manage the children backstage. However, if the school budgets are cut, I will not be able to continue to thrive in this wonderful county and town as a small business owner. Part of my job is to put on full productions with these children, as many as 13 productions a year. The CHCCS schools provide a valuable resource to me in that I rent auditorium space for my productions from several of the schools Since the start of my business in March of 2011 until now, I have invested over $25,000 in rent at the CHCCS and donated over$6000 from ticket sales to various school arts programs. One of the first positions to be cut if the budgets are not fully funded are the theatre manager positions at the High Schools. If the budget is not fully funded, there are no more managers. And it is the managers who assist me, a community member and business owner, when I rent those spaces. My expertise is in staging and choreography and creating a show. I am not able to run the lights, the sound, move heavy pieces of scenery, adjust the temperature in the room, lock and unlock the building and maintain the upkeep of these beautiful theatres. And then the money that I invest in those schools would be gone as well. While I completely understand the BOCC has no control over what positions or programs get cut if the budget is not fully funded, it is important to see how a budget cut would affect not just the students, not just the teachers, but members of the community who benefit from living in an area where education is the highest priority.