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Pottstown School Board gives go-ahead to Lindley to seek grant for arts center, Mercury 11-5-11
By Evan Brandt
ebrandt@pottsmerc.com
POTTSTOWN — The school board gave Superintendent Reed Lindley permission Thursday to pursue grants that could lead to a community art center somewhere in Pottstown.
Lindley said his pursuit of the idea, driven by a grant deadline, is part of a broader strategy to find ways to partner with other entities in the borough to keep Pottstown a “continuously improving school district” despite budget challenges.
Last year, the board was faced with a recommendation to reduce arts and music programing as a way to close a budget gap and several candidates running for open school board seats have suggested that question will be faced again.
“Recognizing that there will be administrative, support and teacher personnel reductions in the upcoming budget,” Lindley said in a presentation to the board, “I’m asking for your support to continue exploration of ideas and funds.”
His presentation listed “non-mandated” programs that, while “important to student success” could be all that’s left to cut in the budget.
The list included: “pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, art, music, physical education, computer science, family consumer science, foreign language, co-curricular activities.”
This choice may be all that’s left the board despite studies that show that “students who reported spending no time in school-sponsored activities were 57 percent more likely to have dropped out before their senior year,” Lindley said.
As an alternative to simply doing without, Lindley explained he is trying to find ways to provide that programing outside of the traditional school budget framework.
And one way might to partner with the borough, local arts organizations and businesses to create a community art center which might provide some of those experiences the school district may soon no longer be able to afford.
Enter ArtPlace.
The permission Lindley received from the board is to sign on to a letter to ArtPlace seeking a grant of $1 million aimed at “creative placemaking.”
Lindley said he had confirmed with Montgomery County officials that the grant could be paired with a $5 million “implementation grant” through the Community Revitalization program.
According to its website, the ArtPlace grant is aimed at “initiatives involving arts organizations, artists and designers working in partnership with local and national partners to produce a transformative impact on community vibrancy.”
The idea is not novel and Lindley showed the board information about the “Colorado Creative District” program, which seeks to attract artists and the “creative class.”
It would not be a school district initiative, explained Lindley, who in two months takes over the presidency of the Pottstown Area Industrial Development entity, but a Pottstown initiative.
Possible partners include the borough, the community college, The Hill School and, obviously, the Pottstown Arts and Cultural Alliance, Lindley said.
The board immediately endorsed further exploring the initiative.
“This is something greater than just promoting an art center,” said board member Michele Pargeon. “This is about being part of helping to revitalize.”
“We are at the point where we need to get very creative with our thinking,” said board member Valerie Harris. “The budget cuts we may have to consider are the very things that give our students an edge.”
“This is not a short-term fix for next year’s budget,” Lindley said. “I’m looking at things like this as a longer-term solution for an overall problem.”
And this is not the only place that such efforts are under way, Lindley explained.
The administration has created six “outreach teams” — literacy, the arts, science-technology-math, character education and civic engagement, athletics and entrepreneurship — all aimed at partnering with the appropriate community organizations to sustain those topics in Pottstown’s educational program.
“We cannot compete with the North Penns and other affluent districts in terms of facilities and equipment; our budget just isn’t there,” said Lindley.
“But our advantage is that we are five square miles,” Lindley said, and can thus easily turn Pottstown into a “learning laboratory, especially for career and technical education.”
Businesses and other organizations get help from the district and students get to learn hands-on skills and real experience that will give them an edge in an ever-growing competitive job market, he said.
Already several projects are under way and include the renovation by students of a Second Street house, which was taken by the borough for non-payment of taxes and water bills; the decoration of High Street storefronts by the DECA club; student programing going on at the former WPAZ radio station and a business plan that has been created for the recycling of unwanted electronics.
“Which future will we help create?” Lindley asked. “A competitive 21st century program one that is rigorous, meaningful, relevant and exciting for students with strong academic and skill-based programs, or an environment that invites vouchers and charter schools that will continue to drain funds from the Pottstown School District and will produce a cycle of decline instead of a cycle of growth?”
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