By Lee Corey,
Media Editor.
If you have tried to stop by the ArtQuest office recently, you might have noticed that the door seems to be consistently locked. In previous years, this office was a far more accessible resource to students, but the office has recently become a source of frustration.
The reason for this is a lack of staff. During last school year, the ArtQuest office had two full time employees: an administrative assistant and the ArtQuest director. Now there are no staff who work there exclusively. In January of 2024 the administrative assistant resigned, and over the summer former ArtQuest director Katie Loomis also resigned. In their absence, Lauren Frost and Brooke Delello, two ArtQuest teachers, have taken over the role of ArtQuest director.
This less-than-ideal situation has greatly impacted the workload of these two teachers. Frost took on the job “in addition to teaching [her] five classes,” and “Ms. Fisher took on two periods of visual fine arts so that Ms. Delello could have two periods a day to be the ArtQuest coordinator. So neither of us have a prep period,” Frost said.
In addition, the position of ArtQuest director also comes with a long list of responsibilities. The program coordinator is in charge of curriculum development initiatives, coordinating the faculty and hiring of teachers, recruitment and retention, event planning, budget management, community and alumni relations, program evaluation, advocacy, grant writing, marketing, promotion, website and social media for the ArtQuest program.
Frost and Delello are also forced to take on the responsibilities of the administrative assistant because that position has not been filled by the district. These responsibilities include answering phone calls, accepting applications and managing studio spaces available to students. “We have journalism students that would come in and work on the podcast. We have video art students that would come and work in the studios or the editing suite. We really needed somebody here to just kind of manage that, make sure that they have what they need,” Frost shared.
Being in the office consistently enough to keep the door unlocked isn’t feasible for Frost and Delello. Hopefully, the district will decide to fill these positions so that information and resources related to ArtQuest magnet programs can become more accessible to students.
