Dear Staff, Students, Neighbors, and Friends
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If you haven???t already noticed the beautiful art on display near the cafeteria, I???d like to take the opportunity to tell you what I have been working on with Jim Hanley.
What started as an innocent conversation where I reached out to him asking if he had any old photos of South Attleboro landmarks that I could use to spruce up the hospital-like conference room, has turned into a larger, more exciting project that we hope will bring more of the community into our school.
We are planning on showcasing local artists for six week installations in our Evelyn Silva Art Gallery. We will be hosting a ceremony to announce this to the public in the near future.
There are a few things that excite me about this project.
The first is to celebrate the arts.
In our current climate of high stakes testing, it???s easy to push the arts to the side as they get in the way of ???real learning.???
I hope you all agree with me that the arts are just as important as our math, science, ELA and the rest of the MCAS subjects.
The arts are integral to all of the subjects.
My goal as an educator is to develop well-rounded students/citizens, not good test-takers.
This is a wonderful way to show our students the importance of art as well as the fact that it???s not some distant thing they have to visit a museum to see but can experience locally as well.
Ask your students about Amy???s skateboard art!
The second piece that I am excited about is the opportunity to get people into our school who probably have no current involvement with Attleboro Public Schools.
These are some of the people we will need to convince that we are worth investing in as the city moves toward asking its citizens to increase its tax revenue.
Keep in mind, roughly 80% of the city???s population has no direct involvement in our schools and I have no idea how many of those 80% feel public education is important.
We need to prove public education???s worth consistently. We must invite Attleboro voters into Hill-Roberts to share our success. Our neighborhood school is their school. We want them to believe in us.
I???d love to have you take your classes ???the long way??? to art and tell them to stop and check out the paintings as they walk to class.
This is a teachable moment to discuss Museum Manners.
This show???s artist Marian Wrightington an Attleboro neighbor.
We are proud she is a friend of Hill-Roberts.
Thank You Marian Wrightington. ??
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Frank Rich
Principal
Hill-Roberts Elementary School
80 Roy Ave.
South Attleboro, MA 02703
Phone: (508) 399-7560
Fax: (508)399-7284