An Open Letter Regarding Performing Arts at New Jersey's Hudson County Schools of Technology

An Open Letter Regarding Performing Arts at New Jersey's

 Hudson County Schools of Technology

To:

• Amy Rodriguez, Superintendent, Hudson County Schools of Technology Superintendent@hcstonline.org

• Craig Guy, Board President, Hudson County Board of Education

• John Dineen, Esq, Board Attorney, Hudson County Board of education ienrique@hcstonline.org

• Thomas A. DeGise, Hudson County Executive hcexec@hcnj.us

• Barbara Mendolla, Principal, County Prep High School/ATD bmendoll@hcstonline.org 

• Kathleen Young, Principal, High Tech High School/ACTE kyoung@hcstonline.org

• Nicholas Sacco, NJ State Senator District 32  SenSacco@njleg.org

• Angela Jimenez, NJ Assembly Member, District 32 AswJimenez@njleg.org

• Pedro Mejia, NJ Assembly Member, District 32  AsmMejia@njleg.org

To Whom It May Concern:

 

I, and many other parents of students at High Tech High School, are very concerned regarding the recently announced restructuring of the Performing Arts program at both County Prep High School and High Tech High School.  According to a letter sent to parents on Jan 21st 2022, the dance and theater programs would be merged into High Tech High School, while the music program would be separated and merged into County Prep.  

 

This plan seems short-sighted at best, and negligent to the needs of our students. While there may be fiscal needs that require a reallocation of resources, splitting the program in two where a third of the program no longer has any connection to the remaining two-thirds is counterproductive to arts education.

 

Performing arts is an interdisciplinary skill, where collaboration is paramount. Theater, music and dance are not separate silos, but parts of the same artistic body. You cannot have dance without music, you cannot produce a musical theater production without dance, you cannot hold a concert without understanding movement and stage presence.  To separate these programs is to misunderstand the purpose of performing arts education in its entirety. The students in the program understand why this is detrimental to their futures, which is why there are students sobbing in the hallways, and contemplating moving out of the county school system entirely. 

 

The current restructuring of the arts programs should have gone in the opposite direction: instead of further separating these disciplines, the programs should be focusing on more interdisciplinary collaboration to prepare our students to be more competitive performing arts professionals.

 

It is clear that the Performing Arts program is singularly negatively affected by these “restructuring” plans, while there are no plans to “merge” other majors, like Culinary Arts and Design and Fabrication, even though both the Jersey City and Secaucus campuses have duplicative programs. And while the Biomedical program is moving, they are doing so as a whole, and to the much-upgraded resources of the recently announced “Liberty Science High School”.  That transition, I understand, is also happening in a matter of years, while the Performing Arts restructuring is coming in a matter of months.

 

To call the restructuring of the Performing Arts program an “investment” is misleading to students and parents. In reality, it has been downsized. That it is also being divided adds further injury to this insult, and kills the heart of Hudson County school system, which until now, has been highly regarded among colleges, universities, and among the professional arts industry for its steadfast commitment to the performing arts.

 

Had parents been asked for feedback ahead of this announcement, perhaps this restructuring would have not been so ham-handed and traumatic for our students.  Many of us feel betrayed by our administrators, and we hope that they are not putting short-term convenience ahead of the long-term benefit of our children’s education. 

 

There is still time and opportunity to save the Performing Arts, while doing what is necessary to reallocate resources responsibly.  We ask that you abandon your current plan to separate the programs, and keep the Performing Arts majors - Dance, Theater and Music - together at the High Tech High School Secaucus Campus.  Should you truly want to evolve the program to the further benefit of our students – we urge that you find ways to make the programs more collaborative and interdisciplinary, not less.

I look forward to discussing this at the next Hudson County School Caucus Meeting to be held on Thursday, February 17th at 4PM, and look forward to receiving information ahead of that meeting. Please let me know if these meetings are being held virtually, or in person.  

 

Thank you.

Miguel Guadalupe