Thank you very much to everyone who showed up at the Save the Arts Rally, to those who wrote letters, signed this petition, spoke during the school committee meeting, shared our message, and supported our cause. There were over 200 people that attended the rally, and several of the community that then spoke during the School Committee meeting afterwards.  It was amazing to watch as teachers, parents and students presented their opinions and facts on the matter.

After public comments, Superintendent Lummis shared an updated version of the FY25 budget in which now includes additional funding "to reduce the number of planned cuts and ensure there are fewer cuts to student support and no cuts to art, performing arts, or music." This is a win for us! But we're not there yet!

The Mayor presented that the city can now grant us up to $4.75M of the budget ask of $6.1M.  That is still a ~$1.3M budget deficit. There will still be cuts if the school committee passes a less than base level budget. Important student services including tier 2 interventions are still on the chopping block. We will keep advocating that the school committee approve the budget that we need, not the budget they think the mayor will approve.

Please continue to advocate for these services.  You can help support by reaching out to schoolcommittee@gloucesterschools.com and gverga@gloucester-ma.gov to advocate the Committee vote for the full amount.  The next update will come around May 8th