2020 Candidate Survey Initiative
Questions and Answers
Nevada County Arts Council is pleased to present summary responses from candidates who, during the 2020 election season, are running for either the Nevada County Board of Education, or for a School District Board. As you prepare to vote, take a moment to read these responses, in the hope that they provide clarity on the individual philosophies, priorities, and perspectives of candidates as they relate to arts education.
In recent years arts education programs have disappeared at an alarming rate. School board members make the ultimate decision about the fate of all academic programs within their district, while our county board of education provides leadership to support the success of these school districts. This makes it essential for voters who care about arts education to know each candidate's perspective on the value of arts education.
As the “Arts Now Ambassador” in Nevada County for California Alliance for Arts Education, we thank all candidates who have gone on record with their views about the role of arts education in public schools. Candidates who do not respond will appear with “no response” next to their name.
Peggy Delgado Fava
PEGGY DELGADO FAVA, Candidate for Nevada County Board of Education Trustee, Area 1
Peggy Delgado Fava is the founder and CEO of Bridge Network, a non-profit that serves youth who might otherwise fall in the cracks with mentorship, services and opportunity.
Fava writes that her organization utilizes the arts in all of their life skills programs, especially as it relates to career exploration. Collaborative partners teach entrepreneurship in the arts where students are creating, developing and also earning in the arts field. The arts are critical in child development, she writes.
She also cites studies which show that the artistic mind is connected to Math/Science aptitude. For this and other reasons the arts should not be cut when decisions are being made.
On a personal level, based on her family history, Fava understands equity in the arts. She supports freedom of expression from all perspectives, and states that the arts should never be about division or hate. We do need to be careful, she writes, to shut down any speech at all, that freedom of expression is the overriding value that should take precedence.
Suasn E. Clarabut
SUSAN E. CLARABUT, Candidate for Nevada County Board of Education Trustee, Area 1
No response, as yet.
Loise Bennicoff Johnson
Louise Bennicoff Johnson, Candidate for Nevada County Board of Education Trustee, Area 1
Louise Bennicoff Johnson has decades of experience as a public high school teacher, principal and administrator. She retired from her position as the superintendent of the Nevada Joint Union High School District in 2018.
Louise Bennicoff Johnson reflected on her own experience singing in the choir as far back as middle school, and the friendships she maintains to this day with some of her choir classmates. The junior high school choir teacher showed her an early glimpse of educational excellence that was further enhanced during her student teaching – the choir teacher happened to be at the school where Johnson was in training to become a science teacher, and they became colleagues.
Johnson wrote: ‘As a science teacher, I often collaborated with music and arts teachers, as my students learned about colors as a function of wavelength.’ Johnson named her many mentors and inspirational colleagues who have been involved in the Humanities. As the superintendent of the Nevada Joint Union High School District, she rarely missed a performance, and noted that community participation in the arts programs was one of the defining cultural aspects of the Nevada County region.
Because of her own direct experiences in schools, Johnson is an enthusiastic supporter of arts education and understands how to utilize the mechanisms of the LCFF and budgeting systems to effectively keep the arts in schools. As a County Board member, she sees her role as an advocate and supporter of District efforts in the arts, which is ultimately where the decisions regarding arts programs will take place. In defining her role throughout her career, Johnson wrote, ‘I’m just a small town teacher who showed up to work every day.’
Johnson also mentioned racial justice and the arts’ ability to help that cause, as well as wanting to see a multicultural approach to the arts programs – all of which reduces racial tension and gives students an identity both as an individual and part of a group that enriches school culture.
Ashley Neumann
ASHLEY NEUMANN, Candidate for Nevada County Board of Education Trustee, Area 2
Ashley Neumann is the incumbent in District II and is a current member of Nevada County Board of Education. She has been an Education Director and has delivered important health and well-being information to at-risk youth in Nevada County. She has school-aged children attending public schools in Nevada County.
Art has impacted my life in the biggest way as I watched art heal and transform the youth in our local juvenile hall. When these often abused, traumatized, violent young people were given paper and pencils while I presented, they would create such painful beauty in their drawings. What stuck out to me was their ability to concentrate on the presentation and engage productively actually INCREASED when they were able to do something creative with their hands.
Usually it was drawing but there were multiple occasions where yarn and looms were donated and the boys specifically would fight over who used up the last of a certain color. Our local juvenile hall would then donate the beanie hats to homeless shelters and foster kids. Music was also used to heal in juvenile hall. Mr. Desmond taught many how to play guitar. That love of music was sparked in what most would assume is a dark place. Most youth correctional facilities are oppressive and do more harm than good; ours is different.
Tragically, our juvenile hall is closing. I will continue to fight for it. Our troubled children need this place and others like it to help heal them from their wounds, give them needed treatment and help them graduate.
Our children had a love for dance and music (instrument and vocal). Our daughter loves ceramics. Our son taught himself to play guitar during lockdown. I believe this gift he gave himself has helped him cope with lockdown while many of his peers are struggling. Teen suicide, overdose, addiction, abuse and depression have all increased during lockdown. Our children need to reengage in all they have missed, especially the Arts. Having Art, Drama, Sports, Music cohorts separated from each other but able to be together normally is a goal of mine.
Timothy May
TIMOTHY MAY, Candidate for Nevada County Board of Education Trustee, Area 2
Timothy May has had a teaching career that spans 40 years at both the community college and public high school levels in Nevada and Yuba-Sutter Counties. He is a deep lover of literature and has performed in many plays, and has used the arts in his teaching to support learning in other subject areas.
Timothy May has spent his career in education and has been a supporter for the arts in the institutions in which he has been a faculty member. He is keenly aware of the impact the arts have on student motivation and overall school climate.
He believes the role of a County Board of Education member is to promote the visibility and viability of the arts, and to become a voice of advocacy with the County Superintendent so that he in turn can fund County programs and provide influence with District leaders. May expresses that the role of the County Board is not to dictate programs to Districts, but to add voices and information to support what is best for Nevada County students through their local school districts. A Board Member can also advocate for county programs such as art shows, on-line displays and other public-facing activities.
In his teaching, May has created and implemented many arts-integrated lessons that stand as examples of how the arts can be used throughout the curriculum, and has participated as a teacher in the Academic Decathlon, which encourages multi-disciplinary thinking. He offered a full commitment to the Declaration of Students’ Rights to an Arts Education and wrote: ‘Not only do I say I would commit to the Declaration, I have lived my commitment to the Declaration for many years! I promise to continue.’
Julie Baker
JULIE BAKER, Candidate for Nevada County Board of Education Trustee, AREA 3
Julie Baker is currently the Executive Director of the statewide arts advocacy non-profit, Californians for the Arts. Prior to that, for eight years she served as the Executive Director of The Center for the Arts in Grass Valley. She and her family have lived in the area for more than twenty years, and her children attended schools in Nevada County.
Julie Baker attended NYC public schools where the arts awed her from an early age. Her father was an amateur conductor who often took her to Lincoln Center to hear classical music. Opera performances at The Met were the experiences that hooked her for life - ‘I didn’t always understand what was going on,’ Baker wrote, ‘but I loved the theatrics, the pageantry, the booming voices.’
Her teenage years saw her intern at galleries, work at Christie’s, the well-known auction house, and she worked at her family’s marketing company that focused on the arts. Upstate in Woodstock, she worked at the local theater company. At the University of California at Santa Cruz, she became a jazz aficionado, a DJ at the college radio station, and avid patron of every art form and genre, and ultimately she blossomed into a professional arts administrator and advocate.
Baker cites a range of studies and statistics that show students involved in arts education demonstrate superior performance in all aspects of their school and family lives – increased academic performance, higher SAT scores, high college acceptance rates, as well as mental health advantages - far lower stress rates, stronger relationships, greater “joy” in living on a daily basis. These individual behaviors collectively impact schools as school culture is influenced by the infectious curiosity and motivation of students who study the arts.
She commits to working with the superintendent on ensuring the arts are available to every student.
Grace Hudek
GRACE HUDEK, Candidate for Nevada County Board of Education Trustee, Area 3
No response, as yet.
Leslie Lattyak
LESLIE LATTYAK, candidate for Nevada Joint Union High School District board.
Lattyak is an enthusiastic arts supporter, and her daughter is a student at Nevada Union High School and participates in the dance program at the high school. She cites the camaraderie and collaboration as essential to the full development of students.
In addition, she believes the arts give students a full sense of self, as well as unifying an increasingly diverse population. The teamwork aspect of arts activities build better social skills and can enrich cultural knowledge and experience. The arts bridge gaps across many cross-sections of our community: cultural, generational, educational.
Lattyak pledges as a Trustee to support all programs that will bring about equity in the arts each year.
Ty Conway
Ty Conway, incumbent candidate for Nevada City, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD
Conway is the incumbent and is a graduate of Nevada City schools. He played the drums in Middle School and cited the excellent teaching that gave him a lifelong appreciation of music.
He has seen the value in providing art opportunities to children. He supported all efforts to improve the quality and quantity of opportunity. He supported the administration over the past 4 years in an effort to bring in top notch art and music instructors from the high school to develop programs that the district will use to build programs at all levels.
His daughter has been involved in both band and theatre, and has seen school engagement improve tremendously. Conway believes that by offering arts opportunities for students, it elevates school climate to inspiring levels.
Conway pledges to follow state codes regarding the arts, and do everything he can to build excellent programs even with the unpredictability of school programming year-to-year, and to do so in an equitable way for all students.
Sandra Barrington
Sandra Barrington, candidate for the Nevada City, Elementary School District Board
As a child, Barrington had rich arts experiences. Her mother was a docent in her schools and she has volunteered in her daughter’s schools. Looking back, Barrington wondered if there couldn’t have been even more offerings.
Barrington thinks arts education is extremely important and will advocate for a comprehensive education that includes arts programing, emphasizing the budget resources, technology, facilities and staff needs to ensure arts education is included.
Barrington wrote that not all children are exposed to arts and cultural activities growing up and schools, through the arts, can introduce students to new cultures and mediums of art. Parental involvement can be accomplished through the arts as well.
She would advocate for budgets that support arts education including the staff time, facilities, supplies and technology needs to support the curriculum. She advocates collaborating with nonprofits and organizations to accomplish arts education goals.
DAvid Alkire
David Alkire, candidate for the Nevada City, Elementary School District Board
I absolutely support arts in the schools, often times it’s the only thing that keeps kids interested in school. Arts are just as important as other subjects.
CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE
“Nevada County Arts Council’s Candidate Survey Project offers local school/county board candidates in Nevada County the opportunity to go on record with their views about the role of arts education in our public schools. Survey results will be promoted to prospective voters, giving them a way to learn more your views before they vote.
Your responses will be published on Nevada County Arts Council’s website at nevadacountyarts.org two weeks before the election, alongside other candidates running for office in your district. All candidates will be listed in the published results – candidates who do not respond will appear with “no response” next to their name.
In keeping with the State Education code, each school district is to provide every K-12 student with a standards-based, comprehensive arts education. The arts are vital in supporting key education priorities, and for developing job skills for the creative economy and the 21st century workforce.
We thank you for your time, and for running for public office!”
survey questions
QUESTION 1
What is your personal relationship with the arts (music, theatre, dance, visual arts and/or media arts)? Did you have arts in your school? What meaningful arts experiences did you have growing up and how did they impact you?
QUESTION 2
What role do you think the arts can play in supporting the priorities for the state’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF)? These include: student engagement, parental involvement, school climate, common core standards, broad course of study, student achievement, pupil outcomes, basic services.
QUESTION 3
In keeping with the State Education code, each school district is to provide every K-12 student with a standards-based, comprehensive arts education. In addition, the arts are critical for developing job skills vital in the creative economy and the 21st century workforce. If elected, how will you promote the role of arts education in a complete education for students?
QUESTION 4
The Declaration of the Rights of All Students to Equity in Arts Learning states that all students have the right to: participate in high-quality, sequential standards-based arts learning; arts learning that is culturally relevant; necessary resources including proper supplies and facilities; qualified administrators, teachers, and teaching artists; and a positive school and community environment to fully develop their creative potential. If elected, how will you support these rights for students in your district? (Learn more about the Declaration of the Rights of All Students to Equity in Arts Learning: http://www.createca.dreamhosters.com/home/declaration-of-student-rights/