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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2007 > September > 16 > Entry
Stivers on Court House Square
(Stivers students paint on Court House Square in downtown Dayton Wednesday to kick off a school fund-raiser.)
Shon Walters stood watch alongside a wall-sized canvass on Court House Square as his students swished and swiped their paint brushes in broad and short strokes.
It’s the kind activity Walters would have loved to participate in when he was a high school student growing up in Fairborn. In school, there were teachers that nudged him to explore his artistic side, but nothing like the nurturing atmosphere of an arts school like Stivers School for the Arts, he said.
At Stivers, students stand shoulder-to-shoulder every day with real professionals like Wolters, who has made a living from his art work for seven years.
“I would have loved to have gone to a school like this,” he said. “They can see what it takes to excel and get paid for what they do.”
On Sept. 12, Wolters helped lead a group of about 80 Stivers students in performances downtown — music, drama, dance and visual arts — to kick off a fund-raising campaign that seeks to keep the professionals like Wolters in the school.
Walters was laid off by the school district in June after six years as an adjunct instructor because of budget cuts caused by the defeat of Dayton’s 15.17-mill school levy in May. But in August, he was brought back when an initial fund-raising burst by the Seedling Foundation, a school support group, raised enough money to convince the district to restore the positions that were cut.
The school pays Walters for 15 hours a week, but he donates another 15 hours for free. Seedling President Bill Pflaum said the group needs $145,000 to keep the adjuncts all year. So far, it has raised $125,760, mostly from foundations and large individual donors.
The Court House Square event kicked of the next phase of the campaign — asking a wide array of individuals to each donate $18, the average cost of one hour of adjunct instruction. The group collected $1,120 from the Court House Square event.
Pflaum said the donation that most impressed him wasn’t from a foundation, philanthropist or even one of the downtown workers who gathered to watch the lunchtime show. It came from a man, apparently homeless, who approached him on the square and put a quarter in the jar.
“He asked me what it was all about and when I told him, he said he wanted to help,” Pflaum said.
To donate to the Seedling Foundation, mail a check to P.O. Box 1858, Dayton, Ohio, 45401-1858. E-mail Pflaum at wdpflaum@ix.netcom.com with questions or call the school at 542-7380.
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