Council Member Stevens raises CASA shortage and arts education concerns
Stevens says she has 55 schools but only 15 CASA slots, argues arts is not a priority in many schools, and questions the pre-K to 12 arts pathway before turning to workforce diversity.
Hi, good afternoon.
I have a couple of questions I'm going to ask, but I just wanted to just make a couple of statements, even around some of the testimony, even around like the CASA designations and things like that.
It's always really frustrating because we only get 15 CASAs.
I have 55 schools in my district.
So even when that's like kind of listed as something that you guys are doing in collaboration with the council, it's very frustrating because we have to do the CASAs because it is, arts is not a priority in a lot of our schools and especially our smaller schools, right?
I have 55 schools because a lot of my schools were cut up and they're smaller schools.
And so.
I think even in that whole analysis and talking about what is the pathway for pre-K to 12, that's not here.
And I think that that has not been a priority for anyone.
And we really need to talk about that because that has been a struggle.
I'm going to go into some questions around workforce diversity.
Because this is something I'm always asking, especially when I'm in the space with the SIGs and saying, how are we promoting diversity and leadership and not just in staff?
Because so often we have a lot of people of color who are, you know, doing the day-to-day work, but not at the most.
management level and that's really important.
So DCLA announced an expanding workforce survey in 2022, later reporting a COVID-related delay.
What is, was this completed?
If so, what are the results?
If not, what comparable evidence does DCLA use to access workforce changes?