News & Press

Dr. Halverson Makes Strong Case for the Governor's School with Legislature

 Dr. Bruce Halverson appeared before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on K-12 Education on January 18th.  He made a strong case for continued legislative support for the Governor's School and its mission to serve South Carolina's artistically talented students. The full text of his remarks appears below. 

"Thank you for your commitment to the young people of our state, and in particular, to the talented young artists who attend the residential and summer programs at the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities.

As you consider the funding needs for public education, I am here to encourage you also to make a commitment to strong funding for our state's special schools, and, of course, the South Carolina School for the Arts and Humanities is one of these special schools.  The special schools play an essential role in the education of our state's young people and our school, as well as our sister school for Science and Math,  is nationally recognized as an exceptional program.  We are a national model and I ask your support in order for us to maintain our required level of excellence.

As you face the challenges of developing appropriate funding for K-12 education, I am here today to paint a clear picture of the challenges we face at our school, and I know the other special schools face similar challenges.  For the past three years we have worked diligently to preserve the level of academic and artistic excellence that is our standard and to meet the health and safety standards that are required.  With the continuing reductions in our budget, that now amount to approximately $2 million or over 25% of our state appropriated funding, ($7.3 million to $5.3 million), we face 2012 with truly deep concern.   Last year, in addition to our general appropriations and EIA we received an additional $500,000 in Federal stimulus funds and this year have received  $500,000 t from the Increased Enforcement Collection.

In the 2010-11 school year, in order to avoid a deficit budget and also prepare for the future, we have reduced our student body in the residential school by 20%.  40 fewer students were unable to attend.  Over the past two years, we have significantly reduced the staffing in every area, including part-time teachers and, and now this year, we have reduced the full-time teaching faculty as well.  The salaries of everyone on our faculty and staff are less this year, once again, than they were three years ago.  For three straight years we have required everyone to take unpaid furloughs, always being careful not to miss any teaching days.  With fewer faculty and especially staff, the demands of maintaining high standards in all areas are tremendously challenging.  We have also increased the fee for our summer programs that serve more than 300 young people from across the state. 

With the help of the School's Foundation, no student is denied admission to either the summer program or the residential program, where we charge for food, because of finances. 

Our wonderful staff is not complaining.  They continue to meet the requirements, but how long can this last?  We have stripped our school of its assistants and secretaries, reduced the maintenance and cleaning staff, left positions open in student and residence life, added to the faculty loads, reduced the number of teachers, staff, and administrators, and the list goes on. 

We have been a model for Ebenezer Scrooge.  We have hoarded and saved in order to protect our school and prepare it for the future.  We can offer an exceptional education this year because we have been so careful, but in 2012 we hope for two things:  1).To maintain our present base of appropriated funds and 2).  To participate again at the $500,000 level in the "Increased Enforcement Collections" fund that you provided for us in this year. 

If you are not able to provide for these two requests, we will be forced to expend all of our carryover funds that we have been diligently preserving and we will face the potential of a radically different school in 2012-2013-if we are even able to continue.  Our present general fund appropriation is 26% less than when we opened the doors of the residential school 10 years ago.  My dream, of course, is for you to be able to reverse this downward funding spiral for us and enhance our funding to a level where we could return to capacity and hire sufficient staff to relieve the heavy load on our employees.

In addition, if you are unable to meet our requests and are forced to reduce our general appropriation, then I ask you not to dictate the areas of the reduction.  We have been efficient managers and we need to be given the option of deciding how best to shape our school when we face these significant challenges.

In closing let me turn away from the pain we all experience from these budget struggles to the good news of the success of wonderful South Carolina young people.  In front of you, you have a list of some of the highlights of the past year at our school, but let me provide a few more specifics:

AP tests continue to demonstrate our rigor and student achievement, indicated by outstanding school scores, including passing rates of 90-100% in areas of Art History, English Literature, English Language/Composition, European History, and Music Theory.  South Carolina's Department of Education recognized the school as Summa Cum Laude-Distinguished Performance School for excellence in both ACT and SAT tests.

Our school  maintains it reputation as a national leader in student achievement.  This year, the Creative Writing students won more awards than any other school in the country in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition.  In addition, they received numerous national honors in a variety of highly competitive contests and every first place award in the South Carolina Writers Workshop High School Competition. Several student writing pieces were published in regional and national periodicals.  The Visual Arts students also excelled in national competitions, with one of our students named the national winner in printmaking.  They also captured 1^st place in 7 of the 8 categories in the 20^th Annual Upstate High School Art Exhibit and a ceramics student received the Best of Show award.  In Region 1 of the Picasso Project, Visual Arts students won the all of the awards with one of them named the state-wide winner for the Project. Drama students were strongly commended for superior work by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and by representatives of the country's leading drama schools and university programs   In the 12 state southeastern region of the prestigious Youth American Grand Prix,  several dance students won superior recognition.  Music students were selected for All State Band and Orchestra and took top awards in state and regional competition of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and Music Teachers National Association solo competitions, with one student continuing on to win the national competition for brass players.

As Presidential Scholars in the Arts, two of our students had the honor of visiting the White House as part of their special recognition.  During the year, the school's students contributed more than 2000 volunteer hours to a variety of nonprofit organizations across the Upstate.  In addition, Scott Gould, Creative Writing teacher, was selected as the YoungArts 2010 Literary Arts Educator of the Year by the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts and Dean Sharon Kazee was honored as Administrator of the Year by the state's Association of School Librarians.

This list could continue, but you can see that despite our challenges we have upheld the expectations for excellence.  A strong artistic environment is necessary for South Carolina to have a promising future.  We must have well educated artists if we are to have the economic engine of an excellent arts and culture industry.  The seeds for this future are imbedded in the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities.  If we nourish young artists, they will thrive, and, in turn, the fortunes of the towns and cities of our state will be enriched and we will prosper.  I am asking for your help to ensure that this funding crisis does not extinguish the life of a school that creates unparalleled opportunity for the young people of our state."

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