The following is part of a series of profiles highlighting various local education agencies’ (LEAs) efforts to develop quality arts education programming for their students. These profiles intend to support LEAs in generating ideas for effective arts programming that school leaders could implement with Prop 28 funding in different contexts.
Mariposa County Unified School District: A Partnership-Driven Community
Overview
Mariposa County Unified School District (MCUSD) is a one-district county located in the heart of California’s rural landscape just outside of Yosemite National Park. This rural district serves approximately 1,800 students across 12 school sites, several of which are small schools serving 30–40 students. The Mariposa County Unified School District spans across 1,450 square miles, but has a small population given this size. Because of this, MCUSD serves as both the district and the county office of education, and administrative staff and school board staff serve in both roles representing the district and the county. Although the size of this district’s population is small, the partnerships across several different entities within the district have resulted in arts programming that serves a need in the community benefiting students, families, and the community at large.
Background Information
(Note: Will be presented as tables and graphics)
- Regional information
- District Name: Mariposa County Unified School District
- County Name: Mariposa County
- California County Superintendents Service Region: Region 7
- School information
- Number of Schools: 12
- Urban, rural, suburban classification: Rural
- Teacher information (2022–23)
- Total number of FTE teachers in district: 93.9
Table 1. Snapshot of 2021–22 Teaching Assignment by FTE: Mariposa County Unified School District
Data from the California Department of Education. Retrieved May 5, 2024, from https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/DQCensus/TchAssgnOutcome.aspx?agglevel=District&cds=2265532&year=2021-22
4. Student information (2022–23)
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- Number of students served: 1,820
- Percentage of English language learner (ELL) students: 4.2%
- Percentage of students with disabilities: 16%
- Percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch (FRL): 65.1%
- Number of students served: 1,820
5. Demographics of students
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- Percentage of African American students: 0.6%
- Percentage of American Indian or Alaska Native students: 3.1%
- Percentage of Asian students: 0.8%
- Percentage of Filipino students: 0.5%
- Percentage of Hispanic or Latino students: 24.2%
- Percentage of Pacific Islander students: 0.1%
- Percentage of White students: 62.8%
- Percentage of students who identify as two or more races: 6.9%
- Not reported: 0.9%
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6. Arts course information (2018–19)
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- Total number of arts courses offered: 25
- Total number of students in arts courses: 277
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The Mariposa Community
Mariposa County Unified School District’s (MCUSD) arts program is a testament to the power of community collaboration. Cara Goger, the Executive Director of the Mariposa County Art Council and the Mariposa County Arts Lead, has been at the forefront of arts programming across the county.
There is a strong sense of community pride across the county and residents are drawn together by a deep appreciation of the landscape and the ecosystem, which includes Yosemite National Park and the Merced River Canyon. As stated in their arts strategic plan, “Mariposa’s rural features are significant assets—its scale and strong community make it easy to leverage the many developed and latent opportunities within Mariposa’s education and social ecosystems to support the County’s youth, in all areas, especially rigorous, sequential, and equitable arts education.”
MCUSD has brought several organizations together—the Mariposa Arts Council, the County Office of Education, a local land trust, and the local community—to build a spring and summer camp program they piloted last year. This program focuses on outdoor education, specifically indigenous and community land restoration, which includes arts education programming brought by the Mariposa Arts Council. This program has been incredibly successful in its pilot year, and Mariposa is now considering how to expand this program into classrooms during the school year, which Prop 28 funding may support in doing.
Program Description
MCUSD faces challenges like many other rural communities: challenges for students attending schools in their geographically spread-out district and challenges for the residents of the county at large. Their arts strategic plan recognizes this, but rather than viewing these as hurdles that cannot be overcome, MCUSD brought together community members to creatively address increasing arts education opportunities for students across the county and providing much-needed child care for families over spring and summer breaks.
The Indigenous and Community Land Restoration Project has brought together the school district and county, the Mariposa Arts Council, Sierra Foothill Conservancy, and the Southern Miwuk Nation to support students and families through a day camp for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. These partners brought their expertise to the table to fill a need the district identified. The Mariposa Arts Council had a long history of working with the district and could bring staff and arts education expertise to the table. Sierra Foothill Conservancy, which is the local land trust in Mariposa, brought experience in outdoor/environmental education and access to sites to host the program. A natural partnership was born and a program was piloted with a curriculum aligned to the Next-Generation Science Standards and the California arts standards, which brought a robust cohort of educators from visual arts, performing arts, poetry, dance, and the sciences.
“Mariposa’s rural features are significant assets—its scale and strong community make it easy to leverage the many developed and latent opportunities within Mariposa’s education and social ecosystems to support the County’s youth, in all areas, especially rigorous, sequential, and equitable arts education.” -Cara Goger, the Executive Director of the Mariposa County Art Council and the Mariposa County Arts Lead
Funding the Program
During the pilot year of the program, MCUSD used funding from the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program (ELOP) to support this project. The district saw and heard from families that there was a need for community programs in the spring and summer when families struggled to find child care and it approached the Mariposa Arts Council to brainstorm how to fill this gap. MCUSD then opened the opportunity for the Mariposa Arts Council and other community organizations to pilot the program, while the district continued to be a partner in the planning process. Over the course of the planning period, the program plan evolved from half-day programming to full-day programming, and more responsibility, including staffing responsibility, fell to the Mariposa Arts Council and Sierra Foothill Conservancy. This partnership between the Mariposa Arts Council, Sierra Foothill Conservancy, and MCUSD helped to move the program forward as responsibilities were shared across organizations.
Student and Community Impact
In the summer of 2023, Mariposa’s program served approximately 120 students and around 100 students during the spring of 2024. With a total enrollment of around 1,800 students, it is a large proportion of their students. Goger shared, “For us, that’s huge. Parents appreciate that kids are engaged in art and science-based curriculum and playing outside.” Through formal assessments, they gathered feedback that students enjoyed the program and felt safe. What seems more powerful, however, is some of the qualitative data they gathered from conversations with students and families. “Kids feel stewardship and investment in the landscape. This program falls into restoring the landscape—students are protecting our community from wildfire and have been brought into that process.”
Beyond the number of families the program is impacting directly, there is also a noticeable impact the program has had on the level of community cohesiveness. Goger stated, “There’s a larger picture here; this program is bringing youth into the process to show them what partnership can look like. That’s the key takeaway.” The partners involved in this project have also felt a direct impact. Sierra Foothill Conservancy is building their capacity as an educational organization and the Arts Council is forming deeper connections with the tribal community and has hired additional staff from the indigenous community, building this partnership even deeper. MCUSD district and county staff have seen the benefit of this partnership and are interested in continuing this work.
Expanding the Program
The spring and summer programming was wildly successful, as evidenced by multiple newspaper articles highlighting the impact the program had on families and students. For Cara Goger, she hopes this is only the start. “Maybe we can take this work we’re doing and use Prop 28 funds to bring this into the classroom.” In this rural area, the community spirit has driven the district to form partnerships with several organizations that impact students and families to move forward quickly and effectively. “Everyone understands the needs in this community, and it’s easy to identify partnerships.” This has led the district to create an arts strategic plan that has driven much of the work in the district related to arts programming and will no doubt lead to continued success in ensuring students in Mariposa County have access to a high-quality arts education.
Appendices
- Mariposa LCAP
- Mariposa Strategic Plan
- Art + Environmental Education Day Camps Fact Sheet 2023
- Prop 28 Planning Toolkit
Create CA and WestEd would like to thank and acknowledge individuals who supported the creation of the LEA education program profiles for Create CA’s Prop 28 AMS Planning Toolkit.
Mariposa County Unified School District
Cara Goger, Executive Director & Mariposa County Arts Lead
Mariposa Arts Council
goger@mariposaartscouncil.org
This profile was made possible by the generous support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and developed by Create CA and WestEd
Create CA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.