photo credit: CreativeSonoma.org
Creative Sonoma is launching a #TEACHtheARTS campaign to develop and recruit arts educators.

For years, arts education in public schools has been dwindling. But that may be turning around. A statewide, voter-approved measure is putting money back into K-12 arts programs. 

Sonoma County is taking steps to ensure students benefit from Proposition 28. That's a 2022 law that provides funding for arts education.

“Prop 28 really is state-funded money that will be sent out to each of the schools based on their populations. Administrators are supposed to allocate that money to new positions or new courses to ensure that students are receiving additional Arts Education services," explains Nzinga Woods, Project Coordinator at Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE.) 

Woods says SCOE is partnering with School Gig.

That's an online platform dedicated to helping artists transition into education roles, and connecting accredited arts teachers with positions.

Joelle Ayala is Head of Growth at School Gig, who says the funding creates a huge opportunity for artists to find careers across the state.

“I think there’s about 15,000 arts educators that are needed to be hired by California public schools to reach the demand and the scale that’s needed to fulfil the resources provided by Prop 28," said Ayala.

School Gig is offering local school districts free job postings that are then cross-posted on major job search sites like Indeed and Google Jobs.

Sonoma County districts and schools have already received nearly $9.5 million dollars from Prop 28 for the 2023-24 school year. However, many school districts have not yet spent their allocated funds.

“It has been really confusing," said Debbie Yarrow, Arts Education Manager for Creative Sonoma. "It has definitely been a bumpy start coming out of the gate. I think the support was not there initially for understanding and defining what Prop 28- and Prop 28 is really called Arts and Music in Schools. Our acronym is AMS. So there wasn't a lot of help initially even defining, ‘Well what is this supposed to be used for?’ And over time there's been more language about what it is and what it isn't," explained Yarrow.

Yarrow says there is good news for those districts who have yet to figure out their arts programs.

“The good news is that a school district or a Local Education Agency that's receiving those funds, they have up to three years to spend one year's allocation. So the 23-24 allocation needs to be spent by 2026," said Yarrow.

School districts that do not use funds within 3 years will have to return that money to the state.

Yarrow says Creative Sonoma is offering more support for districts and schools as they navigate this new opportunity.

“We are offering a Symposium in April, for our schools, for principals, superintendents, HR folks, all the people involved in these Prop 28 decisions to come together with arts partners, and just learn more because, back to the beginning of our conversation, there's just not a lot of support out there for our administrators who are trying to do so much. And then this new opportunity, you know, shiny new opportunity comes and it's like, ‘Okay how do I figure this out?’” Yarrow said.

Yarrow says Creative Sonoma is launching a campaign called #TEACHtheARTS to increase the number of arts educators. And it will host a career pathways event.

“This is a next step in this #TEACHtheARTS campaign. So we have our messaging campaign, hoping to pique the interest of students, particularly high school students, community college, and even universities students. And the event is on the campus of Sonoma State on Saturday February 1st, beginning at 9:30. It's a free event and it's really, it's really an overview of what an opportunity looks like through higher education to a career in the Arts," said Yarrow.

Creative Sonoma is partnering with both SSU and Santa Rosa Junior College for the event. It will cover available jobs, support for college tuition, a campus tour, meetings with faculty, and more. Details are available at creativesonoma.org