District of Columbia Public Schools has stunned the communities of five overcrowded, high achieving DC elementary schools by cutting funding to our shared Fillmore Arts Center.  These drastic cuts will completely end the program at Fillmore and cause students from Key, Ross, Marie Reed, Hyde-Addison, and Stoddert schools to lose their high-quality arts education.

None of the 5 elementary schools has any dedicated classroom space for its own arts education.  Fillmore provides an affordable, practical solution to overcrowding and limited budgets: The five schools currently pool their resources and provide just under $1 million for the salaries of 10 Fillmore arts and music teachers, while DCPS provides approximately $600,000 for salaries of the Fillmore Director, three staff positions, and supplies. 

The proposed budget cuts would force each of the 5 schools to implement arts and music education in whatever space they can find at their separate locations, with whatever supplies they can afford.  The result will most likely be "art-on-a-cart" instruction for 1,700 students from the 5 schools, making any choice in offerings in arts education impossible.  If the cuts are allowed to stand, our students will lose sculpture, computer animation, digital arts, pottery, theater, dance, strings, band, and others. The end of Fillmore would mean that our students would no longer have the dedicated classrooms, studio space, instruments, tools, and supplies that they can only enjoy at Fillmore. 

DCPS attempted to eliminate Fillmore Arts Center in 2013, but because of an outpouring of support from our community, the proposed budget cuts were revised and Fillmore was saved.  Join us in telling DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson, Chief Operating Officer Dr. Nathaniel Beers, and DCPS Chief of Schools John Davis that their proposed cuts are unacceptable.

We, the undersigned, urge Chancellor Kaya Henderson to restore Fillmore’s budget for next year and beyond, so that our children may continue to thrive in the arts!