MCPS Elementary Art Teacher has 665 Students

2/24/20 Board of Education Meeting Public Comment

My name is Tracy Holbert and I am an elementary art teacher. I want to start by thanking you all for addressing arts funding last year! I am very passionate about what I teach and I love my students. However in my opinion, the allocation system for specialists in this county is flawed. Allocations for art, music, and PE are based off of the number of homeroom teachers a school will have next year and they were released last week. This is the second year that I have to teach at three different elementary schools. It is stressful trying to remember what materials I need for which building on which day and I have 6, sometimes 7 different preps.

I have been at my base school each year that I have taught in MCPS. However, the other points that make up the rest of my full-time allocation have changed every year I have been in the county. This means that every spring I am shuffled around and I have to interview for the same job that I've been doing well. I have taught in six different schools in six years. I am also currently the elementary art teacher that teaches the most students in the county which is 665 children. I give my heart and soul to my work, but it's not reasonable to think that I'm able to give all 665 children the care and attention that they deserve.

I’ve been advised to find a 1.0 position at another school to solve the issue. I love my home school and the program I have built there. Moving to a position at one school does not remove the problem; all it does is give the problem to a different teacher. If I move to another school, someone else will have to take my three, which could be a first-year teacher who would feel like quitting after the first month. I ask that we conduct research to find out how to solve this issue that is affecting so many people in our school system. Odd number allocations, which cause a split day schedule, cost the county reimbursement for gas, cause tension between principals over scheduling, and less classes are taught due to travel time. If we would round up to even number allocations then it would be easier to coordinate schools. A survey of elementary art teachers revealed that over 17 of us are teaching more than our contractual 25 weekly classes because MCPS has not provided the funding to update allocations between spring projections and the first day of school. Specialists are over scheduled, perform numerous duties outside of the classroom, and travel between buildings. Yet our needs are not prioritized even though we are also academic subjects essential to the whole child.

If art, music, and physical education are a priority to MCPS, we need to take better care of our educators. I want to give the best education to my kids, but I can't pour from an empty cup. Too many of our teachers are at more than two work sites and it is contributing to burnout. If MCPS wants to be considered desirable for a teacher to come work in, we need to fix this issue. It is a question of what our students deserve, what our teachers deserve, and how we respect the profession of education.

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/BM4JG54C8504/$file/Tracy%20Holbert.pdf