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.
Palermo Union Elementary School District: Bringing a Creative Mindset to Funding
Overview
Palermo Union School District is a small, rural school district located in Butte County, California. District wide there are four school campuses – Palermo Middle School, Helen Wilcox Elementary, Honcut Elementary, and Golden Hills Elementary – serving about 1,200 students. Over 80 percent of students in the district qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Through creative thinking and pooling of funds, this small school district has found ways to hire its two full-time visual arts teachers, create partnerships with other K-8 school districts to become a site of Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child (an initiative of the Kennedy Center), and create partnerships with community organizations to bring in teaching artists into schools in their district. Learn more about how they have thought creatively about funding in the profile below!
Background Information
(Note: Will be presented as tables and graphics)
- Regional information
- District Name: Palermo Union School District
- County Name: Butte County
- California County Superintendents Service Region: Region 2
- School information
- Number of Schools: 4
- Urban, rural, suburban classification: Rural
- Teacher information (2021–2022)
- Total number of teachers in district: 78
- Total number of full-time equivalency (FTE) teachers: 78
Table 1. Snapshot of 2021–22 Teaching Assignment by FTE: Palermo Union Elementary School District
Data from the California Department of Education. Retrieved October 3, 2023, from https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/DQCensus/TchAssgnOutcome.aspx?agglevel=District&cds=0461523&year=2021-22
4. Student information (2022–23)
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- Number of students served: 1,186
- Percentage of English language learner (ELL) students: 13.9%
- Percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch (FRL) students: 84.4%
- Demographics of students
- Percentage of African American students: 0.3%
- Percentage of American Indian or Alaska Native students: 3.1%
- Percentage of Asian students: 3.9%
- Percentage of Filipino students: .3%
- Percentage of Hispanic or Latino students: 36.8%
- Percentage of Pacific Islander students: .2%
- Percentage of White students: 41.7%
- Percentage of students who identify as two or more races: 12.2%
- Number of students served: 1,186
5. Arts course information (2018–19)
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- Total number of arts courses offered: 2
- Total number of students in arts courses: 56
Program Description
Since the pandemic, Palermo Union School District leaders are focused on solving a common question: How do we reengage kids in schools? Answering this question is critical to achieving the district’s vision, which states, “All Palermo students will receive a meaningful and challenging education that will provide the opportunity to become life-long learners and motivated to be contributing members of society.” Arts education is one approach the school district is taking to reengage students; drive down absenteeism rates; and build connections with students, families, and the community. Through creative thinking and pooling of funds, the district
- hired its two full-time visual arts teachers,
- created partnerships with other K–8 school districts to become a site of Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child (an initiative of the Kennedy Center), and
- created partnerships with community organizations to bring in teaching artists to implement a 10-week arts program and after-school art programs.
“I know about the connections between arts and student engagement,” Kristi Napoli, principal at Golden Hills Elementary, shared. “Before we had lots of sports options, but not everyone is interested in sports. By adding arts, we’ve increased student engagement.” Through some creative uses of funds, Palermo has been able to support the rise of attendance rates that decreased severely during the pandemic by offering multiple extended learning opportunities which included theatre and visual arts clubs to increase student engagement and connection to school. Kimberly Solano, principal at Palermo Middle School observed,
“Teachers are excited, and kids love it. Bringing in arts has supported student confidence and has helped make everybody feel welcome.”
Prioritizing Access to the Arts
A key piece to the success Palermo has seen with the arts education programming is due to the commitment from many district and school leaders. Before 2022, the district had a strong band program, but no other arts classes were offered in school sites. Superintendent Andoe and principals at all four school sites prioritized growing the arts programming and were able to do so by securing additional funding through the Expanded Learning funds from the state and an Ensuring Arts for Any Given Child grant. This drive to support arts in the district aligned with their major focus of student reengagement.
Expanding Access to the Arts
Prior to 2022, Palermo offered a music program to 4th and 5th grade students at their middle school campus. The middle school has offered had band at its campus, and the music teacher teaches part-time at the Golden Hills Elementary campus. All 4th and 5th grade students have 45 minutes of music class every week and an opportunity to take band before school, which is a great way to get students interested in the band program. Although small, this band program was popular with students and has been actively involved in many community events. In addition, staff within the district saw that it was making a difference for students. School leaders across the district were curious about how else they could fuel this interest in the arts for students. After additional funding was secured and with future funding coming from Proposition 28, the district looked at how it could bring additional programs into its schedule now, and how it could hire additional full-time arts staff in the future. In 2023, the district worked to bring arts education into classrooms by bringing in teaching artists for 10-week programs, tapping qualified English language arts (ELA) teachers to also offer theatre and hiring two full-time visual arts teachers.
Funding and Scheduling for the Arts
The funding secured by the district through several grants was used across all school sites in the district. The existing music program was largely funded through CFF, and the effort of bringing in teaching artists was possible due to funds from its Any Given Child and Expanded Learning funds. This creativity with funding is similar to the creativity seen in the district’s approach to scheduling. At the middle school level, students have an “exploratory” period, during which some year long arts elective classes are offered. “’Time is always a challenge. We need to be flexible, think outside of the box, and do what we need to do to support students with these opportunities,” observed Solano.
Program Impact
In Palermo, arts education is helping to reengage students across the district. “Our attendance has gone up. It’s definitely correlated because students need to feel connected and like they belong,” stated Napoli. The student impact has been apparent, evidenced by attendance rates increasing and chronic absentee rates decreasing by over 20% at Palermo Middle School and over 28% at Golden Hills Elementary from 2020-2021 to 2022-2023. In addition, the district has seen more community involvement through attendance at arts shows, summer school partnerships with museums, and deeper connections with families.
Appendices
This profile was made possible by the generous support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and developed by Create CA, WestEd, California County Superintendents Arts Initiative, Association of California School Administrators, California Latino School Board Association, and the Small School Districts Association.
Create CA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.