At the Ventura Unified board meeting, Proposition 28 was discussed. Photo by: Isabella Fierros

Proposition 28 is reviewed and approved by the district

On March 19, the VUSD Board of Education held a meeting to discuss and review Proposition 28. Proposition 28 was first approved in November 2022 by California voters to provide ongoing funds for arts education. California will receive $800 million to $1 billion a year to supplement arts education programs, and VHS will receive $80,000 of the grant. 80% of the funds will be given to teachers, and the remaining 20% will be allocated towards whatever the school chooses. 

In the state of California, the Local Control Funding Formula is used to determine how funding is allocated in each district. “The general idea is that the state can’t make decisions for schools at the district level, because it has no way of knowing what any given district needs at any given time. Superintendents, school boards, principals, and parents all know more about where state funding for schools should go, so the state makes super high-level guidelines about how school districts can spend money, then lets each district decide on its own how best to allocate that money to meet its unique needs,” said Drew LaFave, spokesperson for the local group, Parent Advocates for Music.

Parent Advocates for Music (PAM), were founded when the music teachers asked middle and high school music parents to advocate for music at the various Proposition 28 board meetings. 

LaFave said,“[We aspire] to advocate as a unified group of Music Parents together with the Music Directors for a district-wide vision for music…we aim to keep the district informed of what the directors and parents are hoping Prop 28 will do, and we work to facilitate productive, open dialog among all the various constituencies in this space.”  

“Arts education programs” include instruction and training, supplies, materials and arts education partnerships programs. The money can be used to employ Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers that will help advise and instruct various art programs.

Lauren Minadeo, an art teacher at VHS, said, “The plan is really great. The way that Prop 28 works is that the money has to be spent 80% on staffing minimum, and then 20% is available for supplies, field trips and other things. So it is going to be great. We have already planned for supporting dance sections and extra sections of music, with a new teacher to help support Mr. Hunt.  For all of the arts our normal supply budgets  where we buy the majority of our supplies have come from something called the Parcel tax, but that is only going to be around for one more school year, so Prop 28 will hopefully replace [the] parcel tax and pay for our supplies moving forward.”

PAM has expressed issues with Proposition 28 that were brought up in the meeting on March 19. The concern discussed was that VUSD currently does not have a plan on how to spend the money allocated to them by the state. However, according to Minadeo this will not be a problem at VHS. That is why groups like PAM were founded, to advocate for what they think the money should be funneled towards. “Principals can’t make informed decisions about how to spend the money they’re going to get–whether it comes from Prop 28 now, or from some other funding source in the future–without some kind of guidance, and that guidance is currently missing in VUSD.” 

Minadeo said, “The VHS administration has been so supportive of the arts this year. We have a lot of really amazing equipment ordered and on the way.  We have partnered with the Idea Center and are creating a makerspace with a laser engraver, embroidery machine, vinyl cutter and 3D printer.  We also got a class set of Ipads and tons of new supplies. Mrs. McKee has new pottery wheels coming and tons of ceramics supplies on the way.  Next year is going to be an amazing year for art.”