PUBLIC COMMENT AT SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS!

Get ready

• Before attending the meeting, familiarize yourself with the procedures for public comment. These are often available on the school board’s website, or you can contact the board’s administrative office.
• Use our contact your school leaders tool to find and email your school board members in advance. Tell them you will be at the next meeting to discuss arts education. 
• Prepare your comments using the talking points on this page. Tell a personal story about how arts education (or the lack of it) has changed your life or your student’s life. Use this data to reinforce your comments. 
• Practice your remarks to ensure they fit within any time limits imposed by the board.
• Recruit other community members to attend with you. Learn more about engaging youth in advocacy with this flyer (in English and Spanish)!

At the school board meeting

• Arrive at the meeting location early to sign up for public comment. There may be a sign-up sheet or a designated staff member to assist with this process.
• Follow the time limits for public comment, wait for your turn to speak, and keep all comments respectful and professional. 
• Be specific — what is your goal? What are you asking the board to do?
• Hand out our LCFF Leave Behind Flyer (in English and Spanish).

After the meeting

• Email board members, the Superintendent, and administrative staff with next steps and reinforce your points. Thank them for their time. 
• Share resources like the Prop 28: Arts and Music in Schools Planning Toolkit and Guide to Strategic Arts Education Planning
• Plan to attend the next board meeting to follow up 

TALKING POINTS

• Talk about the district’s LCAP and goals and use the LCFF Leave Behind Flyer (in English and Spanish) to connect the arts to the district’s goals. 
• Ask the following questions:
  • How are arts education programs currently funded in the district? (See this resource for more information)
  • How are school sites planning to expand arts education with Prop 28 AMS?
  • What is the district’s vision for expanding and sustaining arts education offerings?
  • Is there anything I can do to support you?
• Students with an arts education are: 5 times more likely to stay in school, 4 times more likely to get a bachelor’s degree, and 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement.
• Multiple research studies show arts education not only decreases feelings of anxiety, depression, and isolation but also positively impacts all-around academic performance.
• California’s creative economy generates 2.7 million jobs. If we do not provide students access to arts education, we sideline millions of young people soon to enter the workforce and endanger the future of the world’s fifth-largest economy.
• Arts education uniquely communicates the ideas and emotions of the human spirit and connects us to our history, heritage, and culture. Fostering appreciation, affirmation, and revitalization of one’s culture and understanding of other cultures. Developing emotional intelligence, social-emotional learning, critical thinking, effective communication, collaborative skills, and creativity
• Arts education prepares students for the 21st-century workforce, furthers academic goals, complements learning in other core subjects, improves student engagement and attendance, strengthens family and community engagement, and enhances a positive school culture and climate
• Arts education nurtures creativity and expression and is a valuable means to attain long-term employment across diverse industries. Creativity is critical to our future economies and essential for people to stay relevant and thrive in our fast-evolving workforce, according to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report