Ocracoke School's Art Teacher Honored With Special Award

But first the good news: Kitty Mitchell is an excellent art teacher and cross country coach who shows "outstanding dedication and commitment to Ocracoke School and the community." 

Joelle and Justin LeBlanc created the Muzel Bryant Award this year and Kitty is its first recipient.

Joelle was a teacher for over twenty years before she and Justin moved to Ocracoke and bought Ocracoke Coffee Company. During her teaching career, Joelle received a similar award for "going the extra mile in teaching," which included a monetary gift that she could spend however she chose.

"It was an amazing treat," she said. "And getting some extra money can make a difference in somebody's life."

She and Justin named the award in honor of the late Muzel Bryant, a lifelong resident of Ocracoke. Through knowing Muzel, they came to understand "how caring this community is on our little sandbar," said Justin at the school awards assembly.

"We wanted to give back to the community," Joelle said. Many of their friends and family members also contributed toward the award.  

First they met with Ocracoke School principal Walt Padgett, who supported the idea of an annual award for a member of his staff. 

"It was really tricky to decide," Joelle said. "There were good reasons for all the teachers to win, but we knew Kitty was the right choice." 

Kitty taught art to all the grades, pre-K through high school, and organized the Christmas show and the annual Arts Week extravaganza. She also coaches the cross country team and runs the after-school running club. In 2012, she achieved National Board Certification. (Fewer than 100,000 teachers nationwide have completed the rigorous evaluation of professional standards. Five of them work at Ocracoke School!)

Joelle said that it was important to her that the teacher they chose was someone who would stick around Ocracoke School and continue to teach. (You can't just take the money and run, teachers!) When she and Justin learned that Kitty's position was cut, they decided to present the award to her anyway. After all, it's not Kitty's fault that she won't be continuing to teach printing and pastels and collages and dot paintings and drawing and water color and sculpture and duck stamps. (That list is not exhaustive; it's just what I can see in my kids' art hanging all around my office. Kitty's students are prolific.)

"It's a huge loss to lose the art program," Joelle said. "The arts are so instrumental to children, to education. We hope that this award shows much we appreciate Kitty's dedication and how important arts are to this community." 

For Kitty, the award came as a complete surprise during the last-day-of-school awards assembly. She was moved to tears, but managed to say, "I'm humbled by this gift because I know how hard these teachers work. Every teacher goes above and beyond here." 

Padgett agreed that all his teachers were deserving, but "Kitty's years of work with the running clubs and her work with the arts in the community and after school program exemplify what Justin and Joelle's award represents."

Kitty will be the 5th grade teacher at Ocracoke School this year if the arts program does not get re-instated. She has one more year to work before she can retire, and the school needed a 5th grade teacher. So Kitty will still be bringing her energy and commitment to Ocracoke School every day, but the school community wishes the rest of the students could benefit from her teaching. Wouldn't we all like to see Kitty back in the art room? Wouldn't we like our students to draw and paint and sculpt and print and make collages? 

That's where the bad news comes in: the art teacher position at Ocracoke School will not be funded for the 2014-15 school year, even if the NC General Assembly re-instates the small school supplemental funding. 

As of this writing, both the House and Senate versions of the budget include provisions for the small school supplement. (Yay!) But according to Hyde County Schools superintendent Dr. Randolph Latimore, that supplement won't be enough to bring back the positions he's cut – at most, he hopes to stop the bleeding. 

During a parent-teacher meeting earlier in the month, Latimore attempted to explain the dire financial situation the school faces.

Since 2010, Hyde County Schools has eliminated 42 positions at their three campuses (Ocracoke School, Mattamuskeet Elementary, and Mattamuskeet Early College High School). 

Latimore explained that the school district will receive less money from the state Department of Public Instruction this year than in years past, yet will be expected to pay more to teachers with the proposed new salary scale.

"We will have to re-allocate monies to fund raises for teachers," he said. "We need to get that money from somewhere." 

The first cuts at Ocracoke School this year were three teaching assistant positions. Next was the art program. 

While he promises that restoring the art positions on Ocracoke and on the mainland will be top priority if he gets more funding, Latimore also said that, ultimately, he made the recommendation to the school board about where to do the reductions. 

Why art? 

Well, academic positions will be last on the chopping block. The career and tech ed teacher positions (shop class and computer lab) are funded separately and there's adequate money for them. He does't want to go back to combined classrooms. He's looked at how to reduce non-instructional positions (most of which are on the mainland) and can't find the way. From his perspective, the money has to be spent on certain things. Art is not one of them. 

Latimore remained adamant that he had no other choice, despite the dismay of parents and teachers.

"Art is crucial, it's irreplaceable," said high school English teacher Charles Temple. "As a teacher of a Common Core subject, I can tell you that the state may distinguish between academics and liberal arts, but the students do not. The arts are equally important to their education." 

Latimore did not disagree, but said his budget would need $500-700,000 more in addition to the small school supplement he's hoping to get, in order to restore the art programs. Meanwhile, Dr. Linda Willis is looking into finding some grant money to help with arts. 

Latimore also expressed dimly at the current climate in Raleigh in regards to the public schools.

"There's a push to destroy public education," he said. "The injunction against vouchers has been lifted and now voucher money will come out of the [Local Education Agency's] budget – out of my budget – to go to private schools. In my opinion, it's a slap against the public schools. The majority party in the legislature does not support public schools, but they were voted in. It's not Ocracoke, not Hyde County, but the majority of North Carolina is not supporting public schools." 

High school history teacher Leslie Cole lamented the drop in the state sales tax in 2011. "That 1% sales tax would've saved so many things," she said.

Middle school science teacher Patricia Piland commented that "it's not how Hyde County is spending the money, it's that we're not getting enough from the state."

A parent remarked that there was no solution but to hang your head. 

"The solution is at the ballot box," said Charles. 

And emailing, writing, and calling those already in office.

"We understand that art is as important a function as academics to the students," said David Tolson, Ocracoke's elected representative to the Hyde County school board. "From the state's eyes, it's got to be academics first, but we'll do what we can to bring art back."

Tolson is hopeful that funding could be restored, as the NC General Assembly hashes out the state budget.

"Nothing's definite yet," he said. 

The next Hyde County school board meeting is Tuesday, July 8th at 10 a.m. at O.A. Peay School in Swan Quarter. You can reach Dr. Latimore and the school board members here.

And now, because nothing lifts the spirits like beautiful artwork, let us enjoy some samples from Kitty's students. These pieces hung in the school art show during the last week of classes. Kitty sent me the list of winners, some of which I'd gotten photos of. If your kid is mentioned on this list and I don't have a photo, send me one! I will add it – that's the beauty of online publishing. 

Mariposa by Zoe Huppert

Patterned Flowers by Christian Trejo

Middle School

Please I.D. these artists for me.

High School 

Australian Dot Painting by Mariah Temple

Beautiful Woman by Yuletzy Hernandez

Swim Freely by Amanda Gaskins

Under the Sea by Mariah Temple