Art has had a big impact

Editor:

I am writing this letter in regards to the current situation regarding the proposal by Superintendent Gates to eliminate the elementary art program in Encampment School after the retirement of our long-time teacher Pam Kraft who was assured her programs would stay intact upon her retirement. Mrs. Kraft and her art program is top notch. I started in her program in kindergarten and continued through elementary, middle school and high school. My senior year I received an art scholarship to the University of Wyoming. I am among multiple students from Encampment who received scholarships to continue art as part of their studies in college. She and her program are well known at the University of Wyoming and are more likely to receive scholarships than others because it is known that they have had formal art training all the way through elementary, middle school and high school, thanks to Kraft’s art program. Many successful students have received an art influence from Kraft’s art programs and are now practicing it as their profession. She has taken many students to state art and always comes home with more blue ribbons than anything else.

I myself run a successful and growing photography business. Without the formal training I received beginning in elementary and up through college, I wouldn’t be able to separate myself from the rest. Art has had a big impact on my life. I am able to pursue my passion for the arts as my profession because I was able to discover it at a young age. I knew in second grade that I was good at art and that it was something I wanted to continue. Art is a form of expression and for children in elementary it is vital in developing their creativity as well as developing who they are and who they will become.

I know Superintendent Gates says there are budget cuts to be made, but can he really justify cutting a staff position over all the iPads that the Encampment school received just this year?

Eliminating the elementary art program is a slippery slope as the middle school and high school programs would be next. One step closer to our small school being shut down. As stated before we are one community and a lot of our communities’ work force is based on that fact that our schools in both towns are running. I know I want my children to have the same opportunities that I did in regards to education and especially art. I would hate to have to leave my community of 28 years because they didn’t have these opportunities.

This issue is very important and I hope many voice their concerns through letters to the school board and even by attending the meeting on March 18th.

Thank You,

Sammy Harrington-Baysinger

(Owner/Photographer of S.Bay Photography)

 

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