Update: News Coverage of SDSA and Indian River School Board

Just a quick update. The strong showing of support by parents and students of SDSA at last night's Indian River School Board meeting has generated more media attention.

Stories appeared last night and this morning on WMDT TV (47) and WBOC TV (16).

There was also a very interesting story in the WAVE newspaper (SDSA program left intact for now, officials say) which included some very troubling remarks from one Board Member, Donna Mitchell, who is quoted as comparing the arts core curricula at SDSA to "dessert:"

"I'm kind of a basics person and I think the mandated things have to come first," she said. "If you're going to buy a meal for your family, you buy dinner first and then, if you have money left over, you buy dessert."

The "dessert", she explained, are programs like SDSA which are not required by state law.

"If cuts have to be made, I would prefer they would be made outside of kindergarten through 12," she said. "These [programs] are wonderful things but if we can't afford them, they have to go."

I'll give Ms. Mitchell a break and assume that this quote is from before last night's presentations, in which I think the case was clearly made that the arts are not an added program at SDSA but rather are a integral part of the academic curriculum.

We're not done here.