Focus on TUSD - April 2007

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Art Classes at Dunham Benefit from Online Tax Credits
With advances in technology, many taxpayers contributed their tax credits online to TUSD schools.

Now, Dunham Elementary School -- the school with the largest increase in online donations in 2006 -- is using some of its windfall to boost technology in its art department.

Dunham's online donations went up by 2,045 percent, from $110 in 2005 to $2,360 in 2006. Its total tax credit intake, from all sources, for 2006 was $9,060.

When the school spends its windfall, computers and photography and video equipment will share space with paints and modeling supplies in Jane Peterson's class. Right now, students continue traditional art activities, such as molding and decorating clay vessels.

Fifth-graders in Patricia Gerhard's fifth-grade class recently tried their hand at creating mug-shaped forms, patterned after the slave folk art found along the Underground Railroad. Peterson told the class that slaves took the pottery with them when they escaped to freedom.

Those slaves wouldn't recognize the mugs these students made. Their modernized creations took the form of elves, dancing characters and self-portraits. "There's no wrong way to do things in here like in math, where there's only one right answer to the problems," said Troy Brubaker, who made his mug into a joker.

Desma Phillips added long hair ropes to the side of her mug, turning it into a woman's head. Turning the mug from side to side, she observed, "It looks like Medusa with her snakes."

Her classmate, Demari Thompson, made his mug into a dancing man topped by a hat. "I'll make him so he's spinning and turning," he explained, adding strange facial expressions to demonstrate that movement. He looks forward to art class. "Once when I had a cast on my hand, my teacher put a glove over my cast and let me do stuff," he recalled. "She doesn't like you to sit out. She wants us to have fun."

Gaby D'Silva, who made her mug into a long-nosed Pinocchio, said she wants to be an artist "so I can make money doing what I like."

Art complements the curriculum, Peterson said, by reinforcing what students learn. "It acts to de-stress the kids as they express themselves," she said. "A lot of kids really need hands-on activities,"

Student Bonnie Balinski agreed, saying, "Art is fun because you use your hands and it's not just printed-out instructions."

Principal John Bellisario said Dunham Elementary will be a technologically oriented school next fall, not only in art, but also with its whiteboards and a video production system that will allow students to produce elementary school news. In addition to using tax credit contributions for equipment, the school will also use the $9,000 the Dunham Dads volunteer group raised from its annual spaghetti supper last October. It has also received a couple of Best Buy grants of $2,500 each.

As for the online tax credit increase, Bellisario said the school beefed up its efforts to collect donations online this year. "I contributed my tax credit that way myself," he said. "It took two seconds. This is the way to go. It's quick, easy and painless."

-- By Sharon Dunham
Communications & Media Relations

TUSD - Proud Supporter of Small Classes

All photos in the April issue by Jes Ruvalcaba of Communications & Media Relations.

The deadline to submit material for the May Focus is Friday, May 4. The Focus will be published Friday, May 18. Email submissions to Chyrl Hill Lander or Sharon Dunham in the Communications & Media Relations Department or use the Focus Online Submission Form.