'I'll see you next year': Now all APS elementary schools will offer both art and music classes

It was a performance that had Lew Wallace Elementary School music teacher Alex Flores, art teacher Tanya Silva and principal Mary Salazar tearing up in unison.

As Flores’ students clapped, tapped and sang along with professional choir Lyyra at a Thursday music class — proud was the only word he could use to describe it.

But it was seeing one particular student, who has struggled academically, that brought principal Salazar to tears.

“He was just a different kid,” Salazar said.

“He shined,” Silva chimed in.

Lew Wallace has prioritized the arts for years, integrating photography, fine arts and music into the curriculum. But starting next school year, all APS elementary schools will have both art and music education, every year. That includes all 91 elementary and K-8 schools on the roster.

That hasn’t always been the case. James Macklin, an Albuquerque Public Schools alumnus, guitarist and music teacher, started working at APS in 2009. Each year, he alternated between Kit Carson and another APS school.

For 23 years, that was the routine for elementary music and art teachers in the district. Each year, schools offered either art or music. The next year, they would swap.

That changed for Macklin in 2019. Kit Carson was an early adopter of an APS expansion, approved in 2018, that aimed to bring both music and art to every elementary school in the district — permanently. In 2019, 20 schools were selected as “pilot schools,” and APS hired more teachers to boot — 10 new art and 10 new music teachers.

“The hardest thing was having to say goodbye to students at the end of the year,” Macklin said. “It’s nice to be able to say, ‘I’ll see you next year.’”

Phase 5 of the expansion, which is included in the fiscal year 2025 proposed APS budget, is expected to cost $802,000. Interviews have already started for new teachers. In total, there will be 156 elementary music and art teachers and almost 250 teaching positions funded by the Fine Arts Department for K-12.

According to APS spokesperson Martin Salazar, about 30 art and music teachers rotated between schools every few weeks during the late 1980s and early ’90s. As a result, it could take years for students to finally reach their turn for art or music lessons, he said.

That was until 1993, when a Legislature-approved raise for teachers was funded by cutting the APS elementary fine arts program entirely, Salazar said.

But three years later, the department was resurrected by fine arts coordinator Janet Kahn with just a handful of teachers.

In the years since 1996, APS Fine Arts has grown. By the time Kahn retired in 2012, there were 94 art and music teachers employed by the department, according to her 2016 obituary, which called the rebuilding of elementary fine arts her “greatest reward.”

By 2018, there were almost 100 teachers in the fine arts program, Salazar said. That’s when the APS Board of Education asked for a plan to reintroduce the arts to every elementary school. The Fine Arts Department submitted a five-year plan; the district is paying an additional $7 million to cover the expansion.

The expansion plan slowed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But by May 2022, 60 APS schools had already benefited from the expansion.

Nationwide, there are 1,200 elementary schools and 400,000 elementary students without access to arts education, according to the Arts Education Data Project.

Macklin said when he started working exclusively at Kit Carson, it was nice not to start “from scratch” each year. Before then, he adapted his curriculum to account for the year gap between seeing students he taught in first grade, but wouldn’t see again until third grade.

Music education can wrap several skills into one, including science, math and literacy, Macklin said. Rhythm, he said, is “really based on the syllable,” and its practice can help develop phonemic awareness, or the ability to break down and analyze individual sounds.

“You’re practicing math without ever really being fully aware that you’re actually doing it,” Macklin said.

In a news release, visual and performing arts resource teacher Patrick Beare said studies show that including arts, alongside other subjects, “supports overall academic achievement and student development.” Mary Salazar said she thinks art and music will improve graduation rates by making kids excited to come to school.

Macklin is encouraged by the staffing growth he’s seen over the past six years.

“We have some highly trained and incredible teachers throughout the district,” Macklin said. “Now that they get to settle down at the schools, I just can’t wait to see what comes next.”