Albuquerque Public Schools
Success Story: APS Fine Arts Expansion Hits Right Notes
Music and art go together like Lennon and McCartney, Monet and Manet, Mahler and Mozart.
A perfect pairing.
APS Superintendent Dr. Gabriella Blakey reveled in the combination Thursday as she toured Tierra Antigua Elementary School, where teachers showed how concurrent art and music classes are making a difference throughout the district.
“These are opportunities – why kids want to go to school,” Dr. Blakey said.
The Fine Arts expansion at APS is a long-held dream for many. And it has finally come to fruition with the completion of a buildout that means elementary students may now have art and music classes in the same year.
“I know what kind of influence it had on me,” Dr. Blakey said, recalling her days of learning the violin while a student at Sandia Base Elementary.
The push to get both popular programs into elementary schools has been years in the making, starting in 2018, when the APS Board of Education OK’d a phased-in plan that over time would allow the district to staff art and music classes in all K-5s and K-8s.
The educational component of art and music has been well-known for years, with experts saying they help students in all subjects while at the same time boosting their self-confidence and sense of engagement.
Though the plan was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the expansion, which cost $9 million, is now complete.
Fine Arts Department Executive Director Gina Rasinksi said the expansion was the long-held dream of many dating to the 1990s. In the early part of the decade, elementary schools could offer music or art, but rarely both in the same year.
In all, the expansion cost about $9 million.
Dr. Blakey called the “investment” a prudent one as she toured Tierra Antigua’s classrooms with Board of Education member Ronalda Tome Warito. Students painted, sang and danced – building blocks, Rasinski said, that someday will result in increased enrollment in music and art classes in middle and high schools.
Tierra Antigua teacher Mike Anaya knows: A longtime music teacher, Anaya said the consistency and stability will pay off, regardless of whether a kid wants to paint, sculpt, play the saxophone or go into science.
“It’ll allow me to build a program,” he said. “It’ll be really nice to have students from kindergarten through the fifth grade.”