Rummage Sale for Macy's

We will be having a fundraiser to help Vista Grande Dance fundraise for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Rummage Sale will take place at Vista Grande High School at 1556 N. Arizola Rd. on June 26th from 8am to 2pm. We will be accepting donations at 6am. We are also seeking donations of water, soda, and baked goods to sell at the rummage sale.

If you would like to make a donation please leave a comment on the blog and I'll get back to you.

Trying to get to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Its no secret the Vista Grande dance has been invited to send students to participate in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Casa Grande Dispatch did a wonderful feature on us a couple of weeks ago and we have been fundraising like crazy. Our most recent fundraiser was a carwas last weekend!


We are also planning a fundraiser through Partylite, a rummage sale, and batting around a few other ideas. We've done frybread fundraisers, a zumbathon, a fundraiser through Casa Grande Candle Company and soliciting sponsorships.

Special thanks to the following community sponsors for their support!
Cottonwood Medical Center
Walton Orthodontics
Ace Vending
Core Construction

Sponsors will receive a T-shirt, and tickets to a fall or spring dance show! If you're interested in sponsoring or if you have a great fundraising idea feel free to comment!

Fine Arts Updates

Taking the Show on the Road!


Vista Grande's first play, "Alice in Wonderland" was a smashing success, so successful in fact, it's been on tour! The day of opening night, members of the cast took a few select scenes to CAC's Academic Honor's Symposium. The symposium opened with the Alice performance followed by members of Vista Grande Dance. It was the first time Fine Arts has been included in the Academic Honor's Symposium.

On Saturday, April 17th the cast of Alice in Wonderland returned to CAC on the invitation of CAC's theater department to perform the third act of the show. Students participated in several workshops that included visual and sound effects for stage, stage makeup and improvisation techniques taught by members of the local Improv troupe, "Exit 185". The visual and sound effects workshop taught students techniques on how to create effects such as snow, rain, thunder, and lightning. At the end of the workshop students enjoyed a treat of edible sugar glass and stage blood made of corn syrup. The showcase gave staff and students the opportunity to network and meet other theater students and staff in the local area as well as learn a bit about education at the college level.






The last stop on the tour is April 26th when the group will perform the complete show at Mesquite Elementary by invitation. Performing at the elementary schools isn't the only outreach that Vista Grande Theater students are doing. Members of the Vista Grande Thespian Society have been volunteering their time to mentor young actors in at Casa Grande Middle School. Volunteers have been serving as junior acting coaches, assisting in costumes and working as technicians and assisting the director in anyway possible.

The Thespian Honor Society is also in the process of planning their first annual induction banquet scheduled for May 12 at 7pm in the auditorium. This first banquet will honor Thespians that were inducted at the beginning of the school year and inducting new members into the honor society. Members are inducted based on points earned from areas such as backstage work, performances and volunteer work in the community.


I Love New York!

Vista Grande Dance has been honored to select dancers to attend the 84th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Students need to raise nearly $3000 per participant. While in New York they will have the opportunity to take master classes from professional choreographers, see a Broadway show, see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall as well as participate in the Nationally televised parade as part of a national group of dancers. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity! Currently Dance is sponsoring a fundraiser through the local Casa Grande Candle Company followed by a Zumbathon on Friday, May 7th at 6:30 pm.

Zumba is a fun, high energy workout based on latin dance. The Zumbathon will be instructed by two certified instructors from Phoenix. Admission is $10 for the two hour class. All proceeds will go toward sending VG Dancers to New York. The Zumbathon will also host vendors such as candle distributors, clothing sales, a bake sale, and a variety of other vendors. We are currently looking for other vendors interested in setting up a booth during the Zumbathon. If interested, contact Cori Lee at 876-9400 ext. 4235 or email clee@cguhsd.org. In addition to the candle and zumbathon fundraisers, staff and students will be offering sponsorship packages that will be sent out to friends family and local businesses. Any and all sponsorships at welcome and can be used as educational tax credit!

Vista Grande Spring Dance Concert will be on Saturday, May 1st at 7 pm. Admission will be $5 at the door and proceeds will benefit the dance department. Concessions and flowers will also be available to purchase at the concert, proceeds from those sales will benefit the dancers attending Macy's. The spring concert will feature student choreography and host as our special guests, Desert Stage Dance Company from Arizona City. This is a great opportunity for dance to work with the community by hosting Desert Stage Dance. High School dancers will mentor young dancers while giving them the opportunity to perform on a stage with full theatrical effects. This is an opportunity the small dance group would not have otherwise. It is anticipated that this will be a positive experience and will open the door for more participation from the community to work with Vista Grande Students.

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland opened tonight. Yesterday they performed for 500 elementary and middle school students for their final dress rehearsal. Our district was also in the process of selecting a new superintendent so they were also touring the school while this was going on. Everything has gone very smoothly for yesterday and tonight's shows. I'm really proud of the kids!

There are still two shows Saturday March 27th at 2 pm and 7 pm. Tickets are $5.

Today the kids from dance and drama participated in the Central Arizona College Academic Symposium. We were the only group from Vista Grande to participate and the only group that brought dance and drama performances. The dances were the two best from Community Choreographer's Showcase and we brought the tea party scene from Alice in Wonderland. They represented the school very well!

Giving New Meaning to the Phrase "Break a Leg!"

My job as the theater teacher requires me to produce shows. The current show is "Alice in Wonderland" We had a fabulous review in today's paper (Wed. March 24) at www.trivalleycentral.com.

What you don't see are the stories about what goes on behind the scenes in the production. Every production has its stories, but this one is a doozey!

The show opens this Friday at Vista Grande High School. We've been in dress rehearsal all week. One of my student's who is the "knave" in the play,( I totally type cast this role!) decided to jump down the two story flight of stairs from the control booth to the auditorium. He did it three times successfully and the fourth, well wasn't so successful. One of my technicians came runing to find me backstage as I was helping with costumes and answering questions. Apparently, the kid couldn't move. I went to assess the situation and sent the tech to find the athletic trainer. When the trainer arrived he brought crutches, just in case. Both the kid's ankles were already very swollen, and we couldn't get him up. We called the paramedics and got a hold of his family. The paramedics arrived just as the local newspaper did to cover the play. That couldn't have looked good!

The paramedics wanted to splint both legs but needed to get his costume off. They asked me if they could cut it off him and said that I "could replace it, right?" At this point I'm absolutely mad that this kid was such an idiot four days before opening night and now they want to cut the costume that is two days old and I have no chance of replacing in such a short time. My answer was "Oh HECK NO! Haven't you guys been watching the news about budget cuts to education, there is no way I can replace it! Especially not four days before a show!" The paramedics sheepishly said "okay" and then very gingerly took the costume off the kid and handed it to me. I would have been okay if they had hurt him more because he brought it on himself.

So the report was after they got out of the hospital, two severely sprained ankles, one heel was completely shattered and the other mildly fractured. Broken is broken if you ask me, mild or not! Its considered bad luck to say "good luck" but we can't say break a leg anymore either, because one of the cast already has.

As for the cast member...well, you might want to come see for yourself! Show times are Friday March 26th at 7pm and Saturday March 27th at 2pm and 7pm at Vista Grande High School, 1556 N. Arizola Rd, Casa Grande AZ, 85222. Tickets are $5. Its very family friendly!

The Real Behind the Scenes Look at Choreographer's Showcase

I want to say thank you to all the audience members and performers that attended the showcase. Despite its technical difficulties, it was a beautiful show! Thank you to the performers and crew for all their hard work and dedication. I hope to see this little show grow into something really spectacular in the future.

I did mention technical difficulties, which there were more than many would ever know. This isn't to ruin the magic of performance, but rather to enhance your understanding of what a person or people go through to make a show happen. From my end, this is one of the worst shows I've ever done and you'll see why if you continue reading.

Last week during auditions we noticed our sound board and light board in the auditorium not working the way it had been for the previous show. Sound wasn't working at all and the light board was malfunctioning where we didn't have complete control of the stage lights or the house lights. We spent the week trouble shooting in drama class, or at least I did, and then during all my plan time during this week to have everything running correctly before the show. Thursday, after a near death experience, I did finally get the sound working correctly. The problem, somebody had disconnected the CD player and reconnected it into a channel that wasn't compatible. The near death experience included me climbing on the ledge of the booth that is two stories above the auditorium to find the correct connections. When my foot slipped and I may have slightly dangled from that position for a few seconds, long enough to panic and realize that if I actually fell, there would be nobody to hear me scream and who knows how long it would be before I was found.

Now with the sound fixed, it was time to trouble shoot the light board. I took the manual home and read it cover to cover again, but couldn't find any answers. So I decided to start with some basic re-programming. It accomplished what I wanted it to with the exception that now I had no stage lights no matter what I did. This was 10:30 Friday morning, my show was at 7pm that evening. I think to myself "I've got time, no need to panic". So I called Tech support on my lighting board, on my cell phone where the signal is poor and my battery burns up in process. I get far enough to learn that because my board is a computer, there have been three critical updates in the last six months that I didn't know I needed, but the board could still operate just fine without them. After dragging two of my classes into the auditorium and giving them "busy" work, I met a friend for lunch who happened to know a thing or two about light boards. We found out that those things didn't apply to my light board. I was back to square one. It was now 1:30 and I had made no progress. I decide to go the route for the update from the website. That should be easy enough right? Wrong!!!!

The website is blocked by the school's filters, I can use my quota time in 5 minute or less increments, but this is a 10-15 minute download that can't be interrupted. So I email and call IT, but it is now after 2pm on Friday afternoon. No answer! Now I'm starting to panic a little.

My Academic Resource kids are sitting in the drama room because we have been yet again moved from the classroom we were assigned. This time, it was because my kids vandalized the keyboards in the computer lab we were in. Between my being upset about that and entering the early phases of panic mode, the few students who ventured to talk to me had their heads ripped off.

2:30 pm I still can't get a hold of IT to unblock the website and neither can I get a hold of the light board tech support from the land line in my office. I am making desperate calls to other colleagues in the district and contacts that I have to see if they have any ideas. I am completely desperate at this point and in full panic mode. I begin to look at my options, I am just over 4 hours away from the show and I have no stage lights. I make a call to the front office and get the principal's secretary and explain my plight. She is instantly as upset as I am and begins making calls to IT as well.

Come to find out that most of IT had exceeded their hours and were already off the clock. I was out of luck it appeared. I begin to really look at cancelling the show or carrying on with alternative lighting options, two followspots and the flourescents overhead, yuck! The office makes a frantic call to district office that has to approve a technician working over time. It is now 3:15, school is out.

The tech arrives at 3:42. The clock is ticking and it appears that to make the decision to cancel the show is out of the question. First order of business, install a makeshift landline in the booth so we can contact tech support. That should only take 5-10 minutes. Now we all know what should happen, and what actually happens are going to be two separate things nowhere near being related. This took nearly an hour to get a phone that worked and configured correctly because we were using an internet line. Once that is accomplished, tech support is contacted and the filter is finally disabled so we can download and install the updates the board is lacking. With all the formualted theories that I had picked up about this light board, I was praying that the update would clear the problem. It is nearly 5 pm and my tech kids are arriving, we install the updates and reboot the board. Miraculously, everything comes up in perfect working order. This left me an hour to refocus and gel lights for the show, no time for programming any sophisticated cues for this show. But that was fine as long as the lights were on.

6:45-We don't have quite the turn out we expected, including two acts that were MIA for dress rehearsal. One I attempted to contact had all their numbers and email disconnected. But we have lights, sound and 9 other acts ready to go. Because my sound technician didn't show, and the other students I have aren't trained on the sound board, so that left me to run sound, MC the show and call the few cues there were. I had planned on this happening so during all my hurry up and wait with the light board, I had rewound the cassettes that were being used, (yes cassettes), checked my cues, put CD's in order, ran a couple of sound checks, so when the show occurred, I was prepared. My plan had worked about halfway through when I needed to set a track in the middle of the music. My time signatures on the player matched what I had written down, but when the music started it wasn't in the right place. I tried again, laughter from the audience, I made three more attempts before I realized the time counter was in a different format than what it was in rehearsal the night before. After nearly five minutes of the audience sitting in the dark and 6 attempts, I finally had the cue correct. (This is why I asked for them to have their music cut and ready ahead of time to prevent something like this). The next disaster hits with the second to last piece when I hit play on the cassette recorder and it doesn't work.

We don't have a cassette player in the booth, and the one I brought from home didn't work. We were using a cassette walkman on batteries. You're thinking the batteries are dead right? That actually wasn't the case, in my effort to be prepared, I rewound the wrong side of the tape earlier that afternoon. We sat for 8 1/2 minutes while I waited for the cassette to rewind the correct side and then I prayed the batteries didn't give out. Thank heaven for small favors because, they did make it through even after all the extra rewinding. The performers themselves did a fabulous job. It was an enjoyable show overall. I did some profuse apologizing to the acts and the audience about the show. But at the same time, this is the nature of live theater, you never know what is going to happen.

Choreographer's Showcase

Community Choreographer's Showcase is Friday Feb. 5 at 7pm. Tickets are $5 and will benefit the Vista Grande Dance Dept. The venue is Vista Grande High School Auditorium at 1556 N. Arizola Rd. Casa Grande.

The show will be about an hour long and will be featuring student choreography as well as choreography from members of the local community. We have belly dancers, Salsa Dancers, Lyrical/Ballet, Jazz and Hip Hop. Its a very family friendly show.

Hope to see you there!!

Choreography Auditions!

Greetings all! I hope you all have had a fabulous Christmas and New Year. Being an instructor at a new high school, I have the opportunity to start some new traditions at Vista Grande High School. I am pleased to announce the first annual "Community Choreographer's Showcase". Auditions will be Friday, January 29th at 5pm at Vista Grande High School. The address is 1556 N. Arizola Rd. Casa Grande. We are looking for original choreography pieces from performers of all ages and styles. Choreographers will have the responsibility of costuming their pieces. We would like to encourage as much participation as possible so please spread the word!

Performance will be Friday, Feb. 5 at 7pm at Vista Grande, with a dress rehearsal Thursday Feb. 4 at 6pm.

Please let me know if you have any questions. 520-876-9400 ext. 423, email is clee@cguhsd.org or simply respond to this message.

Nutcracker and Ballet Arizona

Greetings all! I just would like to make it known that "The Nutcracker 2009" for Casa Grande tickets are on sale! No you do not need to live in Casa Grande to purchase tickets, but you do need to be willing to get here to see the show.

Tickets are $10 and it is reserved seating. If you're interested either leave a comment on the blog or email me at clee@cguhsd.org.

We spent Tuesday night at downtown Casa Grande's "Art in the Alley" promoting the show and selling tickets.

Another update was the Vista Grande and Casa Verde dance departments trip to see Ballet Arizona perform Swan Lake. We saw an hour long excerpt that left us all wanting more! I think next time we'll opt for an evening performance with student tickets and the entire production. I think I may have more chaperones for that also!

My students were dressed so elegantly and behaved so well! We were the best dressed group in attendance. The very sad part was that people were stopping to ask us what we were dressed up for. My response was "the ballet of course"! I am always amazed by the lack of respect for the art and artists reflected in the way patrons now dress. Symphony Hall is a very elegant place and should be reflected in elegant attire.

Thank you to my students for showing respect for the art, artists and for themselves by dressing up appropriately! I'm very proud of you all!

ASU Dance Symposium

We attended the ASU High School Dance Symposium. Our students were among the youngest ones there but they had a fabulous experience. Many of them have only taken class from me in the two years they've been dancing. This was the opportunity to take college level classes, gain new experiences, visit a university campus and meet other dancers.



On a sentimental note, my students were taking classes in the very same studios that I took class in. It was pretty neat!



As a teacher, I don't have many opportunities to take class. I was able to take class from one of the instructors that was a grad student instructor when I was still in college. It was so good to "take" class instead of teach it.

Students took six different dance classes, saw an informal performance and had a question and answer session with the grad students and staff. Teachers took a creative movement class, a choroegraphic process class, participated in AZDEO meeting and did a dance and video technology training.

There were things I was reminded of that I have long since forgotten since my college days. The choreography class was amazing. A quote made by the instructor that impacted me was "creativity is a life force, not something that is exclusive".

The whole purpose was to teach choreographic practices in creating meaningful work with purpose. Something I think that I have lost sight of in an effort to teach technique and foundation skills. We had to work in small groups, where everybody was equally heard and valued. It produced a piece of choreography that was creative and had significant meaning for all of us involved. We forget the art lies in the craft and discovery and not in the end products. This is something that I would like to implement more in class.

Casa Grande Nutcracker rehearsal schedule for Friday Oct.23, 2009

Due to a school activity taking away many of our dancers and choreographers, there will be no rehearsal on Saturday, Oct. 24. We will have an abbreviated rehearsal on Friday, Oct. 23 beginning at 5:30. Some groups will not require the makeup rehearsal


5:30-6:00 pm
Gigiones (Black Box) Julianne
Mice, Soldiers, Clara, Drosselmeyer, Prince (Stage) Reana and Patrick

6:00-6:30
Clara, Drosselmeyer, Maids, Christmas Party Cast (stage)
Julianne, Patrick
Chinese (Dance Room) Reana

6:30-7:00
Flowers (Dance Room) Julianne
Candy Canes-(Stage)Reana

7:00-7:30
Snow corps & Snow King and Queen (Dance Room) Julianne
Dolls (Stage) Reana

7:30-8:00
Angels (Stage) Reana
Flutes (Dance Room) Julianne

8:00-8:30
Arabian-Stage
Russian-Dance room

8:30-10:00
Clara and Prince- Julianne (Dance Room)

November 3rd Override-Casa Grande HS District

Last year's failure of the override cost students in the Casa Grande High School district dearly, especially when it came to the arts. The Fine Arts department was hit hard when the drama teacher, and choir teacher were laid off and the remaining programs were significantly cut back.

At the time we thought the override failure was the worst thing that could happen and then came the budget cuts from the state legislature. This district now has two major high schools and guess what the first cuts to be made are? The remaining drama and choir programs at two schools, the dance programs at three schools, art and some music.

As it is, many of us continue to work beyond the school day without extra duty contracts, our pay has been frozen and our health benefits cut way back. We are enduring class sizes of 40+ only for those to become even larger if this override fails again.

Like last year I volunteered to call registered voters and encourage them to vote for the override. Although many are supportive, there were many that were not because they don't want to see taxes go up.

Here are the facts:
The override has been in place for twenty years prior to its failure in 2008.
The decrease of taxes due to the failure was less than $32.00 a year per household.
The need for the override is not due to schools mismanaging money, but due to extremely poor funding in our state, which has just become much worse in the past fiscal year.

Please get out and vote on Nov. 3. Toltec and Casa Grande Elementary Districts also have overrides on the ballots. Please support the schools and all of our futures by voting Yes! for the overrides.

Aren't our kids and our future generations worth it?

Nutcracker "The Tradition Continues!"

Nutcracker is back!!! I know that its been awhile since I've posted and I need to fix that. Two weeks ago we held auditions for Nutcracker and we just finished our second week of rehearsals. We also have a Facebook page for Nutcracker.

Here is the current rehearsal schedule.
Saturday Sept 19, 26 Oct.3, 24, 31, Nov. 7
No Rehearsals on Sat. Oct 10 and Oct. 17

Sugar Plum- times TBA
Arabian-times TBA
Spanish times-TBA



12:15-1:15 Dolls (Stage) Reana
Snow corps & Snow King and Queen (Dance Room) Julianne

1:15- 1:45-Chinese (Dance Room) Chinese

1:45-2:15- Candy Canes-(Stage)Reana
Gigiones (Black Box)Julianne
Jesters-(commons) Patrick

2:15-3:30
Clara, Drosselmeyer, Maids, Christmas Party Cast (Black Box)
Julianne, Patrick
Russian- (Dance room) Reana

3:30-4:30 Mice, Soldiers, Clara, Drosselmeyer, Prince (Stage) Reana and Patrick

3:30-4pm Flowers (Dance Room) Julianne

4:30-5pm-Flutes (Dance Room) Julianne
Angels (Stage) Reana

Saturday Nov. 14
10:00-1:00 Act 1 Cast (Full Run of Act 1) With Tech crew
1:30-4:00 Act 2 Cast (Ensemble Pieces and full Run of Act 2) With Tech crew

Saturday Nov. 21-10 am-4pm (All Cast) 2x Run through and pictures

Pictures Nov. 21 Video tape, Dec. 1,
Nov. 30, Dec 1, 2 All cast dress rehearsal 5pm-9:30 pm
Performances Dec. 3 and 4.

Rehearsals are closed to the public. Performance dates are Dec. 3 and 4 at Vista Grande High School. For info contact clee@cguhsd.org.

Vista Grande High School is a brand new high school. With the recent budget cuts we are starting our brand new baby dance, drama, choir and band programs with less than we need. Tax Credit monetary donations are accepted in our bookstore, just specify the Fine Art department of choice. Email me or call 520-494-9400 and ask for the bookstore.

The drama dept is always looking for clothing, furniture and accessories to start off our prop and costume supply. Unique and period clothing is always in demand! We'll even take old Halloween costumes.

Nutcracker/drama booster meeting will be this Thursday at 7pm in the blackbox.
We have some important issues to discuss!

CGUHS Dance Concert-with videos!

On Saturday, May 2 my beginning dance classes had their spring dance concert. Many of these dancers have never performed before. Overall they had a great experience! This shot in the hallway was during dress rehearsal taken by somebody's camera phone.

WGAZ Championships 2009

On Saturday, April 28 I had the opportunity to attend the Winterguard Arizona Championships (WGAZ) held at Veteran's Memorial Colisuem. Winterguard features indoor cologuards and drumlines which happen after the fall outdoor season.

As a former colorguard member and instructor myself, I love to attend these events and don't get the chance as often as I would like to because of my other committments. Today I traveled with Casa Grande Union High School who featured a Winterguard, Drumline and a winter brass line for exhibition. I'll include a few of the decent shots I got with my camara. My shutter was too slow for all the action.

Winterguard







Casa Grande High School's Show was "In the Park" featuring the song "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz.

Drumline






I haven't seen a drumline competition in a couple of years and I was amazed at the creativity and ideas that are now being incorporated into the show design. These shows were as much fun to watch as the guard shows.

Casa Grande High School is the only school in the state that features an indoor brassline. Because it is such a unique concept, there is no competition for them so they performed for exhibition. Their show was "Sweeney Todd". Like the drumline and guard shows they had a unique theme and incorporated so many different elements into their show.




There were so many groups for awards they almost couldn't fit them all in. Congratulations to the Casa Grande Drumline who took second place in their division for state and the Battery caption award.

Little Shop of Horrors

Little Shop is my next project that I have been working on for Casa Grande Union High School. A couple of my dance students are in this cast. Although I am the choreographer, there really isn't a ton of choreography in this show. The kids have done an excellent job, and the musical, although humorous on the surface, is quite the commentary on society.

Little Shop will run April 3 and 4 at Casa Grande Union High School's auditorium, at 7 pm, tickets are $10. It will be the last production directed by Manual Leybas, who has been the drama teacher at the high school for 30+ years and has recently been laid off as a result of the budget cuts. This could also very well be the last musical at Casa Grande Union High School.

As for me, I will be assigned to teach dance, and drama at Casa Grande's second high school, Vista Grande next fall, so I too will be leaving CGUHS. We are still trying to decide where that will leave traditional productions such as Nutcracker.

The wrap on Nunsense!

I know that I am way behind on blogging about this show, considering it has already come and gone. But I should mention it just the same. I had the priviledge of being the choreographer for this show at the request of Stacey Seaman, a former colleague of mine who directed the show. I also had the priviledge of working with an amazing cast of five ladies and the extracrdinary crew working backstage. The ironic part was that one of the cast members was a good friend I graduated high school with and hadn't seen since graduation until I found out she was living nearly in my backyard a few months back. I made so many new connections. If you have a chance check out S.T.A.G.E who helped promote this and is working to develop theater in the local area.

Some of the things I love about shows include the connections and new friendships that are built as a group works towards a common goal, being around other creative, passionate people, the rush and stress of show week as everything finally becomes real, the success of a show. This is the world in which I fit and no matter what is happening, somehow always makes sense to me.

In this case Nunsense was on March 5, 6 and 7 at Central Arizona College's Pence Auditorium. The show was seen by 1800+ patrons with a complete sell out for the matinee on the 7th. This was the first musical in several years at CAC and it is hoped that this won't be the last musical.

Here are a few shots as we rehearsed and wrapped up....

What Budget Cuts Mean to Us.

The state of Arizona is facing massive budget cuts, the prevelant are in education. Now that we are now 51st in the nation for spending per capita on students here is what is really happening in our local districts. I say ours because every district in the state is facing the same issues and same cuts and actually this is happening in other states as well. As the economy spirals towards a full blown depression despite tax credits, and stimulus money, none of it is really going toward who really needs the help, the everyday people and education.

The state of Arizona is cutting so much out of education that we are getting to the point we may as well just sentence our children to a life of ignorance. Budget cuts are just counting the superficial expenditures, but the everyday necessities. For example, in my district, huge cuts in supply budgets, the potential loss of benefits for teachers, pay freezes, and the worst part program cuts and layoffs. Lightning has struck on either side of me with the lay off of our drama teacher, who has taught in this district for 33 years, and the choir teacher who has only taught fo three years. The justification, they don't have enough numbers for their classes to make the new requirements of 25 per class. So rather than reducing them to part time, the district is laying them off and bringing in a person who is not qualified. Part of this is due to the failure of our budget override, that we hope to try and pass again in November, along with every other district in the county. If the budget override fails again, it has already been decided that fine arts cannot be sustained and I too will be out of a job. In spite of this, we quietly do our jobs and continue in our cause. Our protests have fallen the in deaf ears of our school board and our legislators. We are treading on thin ice and if continued, will lose our accreditation making the diplomas our students earn worthless. But as our economy further deteriorates, what choices do we have? While sports will also be taking a hit, it isn't the hit that our department has taken. Oh, by the way, have I mentioned that after the override passed, our department came up with $65,000 worth of cuts that come mainly from band and drama that we voluntarily gave up? Today we learned that the vocal music and drama will be reduced to two periods each while the extra stipends for people who assist with band will also be cut, in addition to what we already gave up. What is going to be investigated, does the varsity football team really need 14 coaches when they haven't won a significant game in years and our band is nationally ranked. I don't understand the logic either. Band goes all year long, football among other sports is only a few months and takes time out of the school day for students and staff costing the district double for teacher pay, sub pay and stipend pay. Don't get me wrong, sports are valuable and teach valuable skills. My husband is a basketball coach, but does it all on a volunteer basis. I also put in many hours on a volunteer basis to support my department. My pleas as I stood up and confronted the board on why they have not heard us when we have been at every work session, yet sports have not set foot in the board room. My reccomendation, for every staff member cut from our department, cut a staff from sports to make it equitable. They'll save more money, sports receives more than we do for stipends. Again, the value of we do, is not viewed the same.

They ask for opinions and ideas, yet, this all falls on deaf ears. They claim "the squeaky wheel gets the oil", yet we're not asking for oil, we're just asking for no more parts to be removed. Their claim is "there are no sacred cows" however we're all standing at least knee deep in the bull crap! You tell me folks, I called them on it and for their lack of notifying us about extra duty meetings.

When budget cuts happen, we give up what we can, and still it isn't enough. They have to go further and begin dismantling the department starting with drama, choir and band. The collateral damage is the teachers who lose their jobs and the students who are losing their mentors. The students are and will continue to be the biggest victims.

For the record....let's not foget our superintendent's $600 monthly allowance for a car. I'm not sure where she goes, but if people are losing their jobs, should we really be using crucial funds to pay for a perk.

If you would like to comment please feel free! If you would like to complain to the board, their email addresses are at the Casa Grande Union High School District website, www.cguhsd.org. Otherwise, you can also contact your local representative and let them know your feelings about the budget cuts. These cuts will also cost you not just in loss of programs, but to pay to participate in sports too. Think about it......

The year is almost up- have you made your tax credit donation?

As the year is winding down we are asking for tax credit donations for the fine arts department. In light of all the budget cuts, we are needing these donations now more than ever! Donations go directly to the department they are designated for and they can be written off on your state taxes. Thats up to $250 for an individual and $400 for a joint filing household.

Support the fine arts and make your tax credit donation to Casa Grande Union High School before the new year! To make donations contact the bookstore by emailing bkepler@cguhs.org or calling the office at 520-836-8500.

Designate your donations to
Art
Choir
Dance
Drama
Band

We want to wish you a very Happy Holiday Season and thank you for your support of the Fine Arts!

Nutcracker

Well Nutcracker is done and over, but it was an amazing experience. Check and see if you know anybody in these pictures!