It is with deep appreciation and sincere gratitude that I offer thanks for the tremendous support for our recent LACHSA Live! This first-ever, all-school festival featured all of our arts departments at their finest. It is difficult not to leave inspired from a LACHSA performance, showing, or exhibition. Bravo to all of our amazing arts chairs, teaching artists, and students!
The turnout from families and friends was outstanding with near capacity crowds for each event. Many of our guests were also prospective families, eager for a taste of LACHSA.
As is always the case our parents have demonstrated their passion and commitment in support of LACHSA and their children. Our parents have contributed countless volunteer hours, unrivaled professional expertise, and positive good humor throughout. It was clear that it was going to take much more than rain-soaked skies to dampen the spirits around LACHSA Live! Thanks to members of Arts High Parent Council for their coordination and implementation.
While LACHSA Live was clearly a time to celebrate the fine accomplishments of our students, challenges lay ahead. As I outlined last week, LACHSA has been given the difficult task of balancing its budget for 2009-10. Because the overwhelming majority of LACHSA's deficit stems from our arts programs we have been looking at how to reduce arts spending by some $400K. By week's end I hope to have a clear picture of how this will impact the arts programs specifically for the remainder of the school year.
Many parents and families have generously offered to contribute to preserve arts programming. As soon as the final budget picture becomes clear and we have made the necessary reductions to the budget, I will send out a letter to all parents. This letter will outline how parents can help and where their restricted financial contributions should be directed. It is crucial that parents have confidence that funds contributed by parents will be used exclusively for their intended purposes. John Jackson of the Arts High Foundation and I have been working closely so that parents will be able to contribute easily and with confidence.
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