For eight days during their yearlong physical education class, Anne Arundel County middle-schoolers dance.
They twist, they turn, they aerobicize, they improvise and they practice "dance for athletes," which focuses on agility, balance and speed.
County school officials, struggling to meet a state requirement for fine arts instruction, wanted to know: Do those eight days of dance count as fine arts?
School officials also asked the state Department of Education: Does the graphic arts portion of technology education qualify as fine arts? And what about the graphic arts part of computer class?
State officials' answers were: "No," "No" and "We don't think so."
So, for two months, county officials have worked on complying with a state order to put all pupils in required fine arts, physical education and health classes by the second semester of this school year. But, worried about disruptive effects of the changes, they asked the state if they could wait until next fall to alter pupils' schedules.
The State Board of Education will consider the request Tuesday.
Associate Superintendent Ken Lawson posed the questions about fine arts requirements in a letter to state education officials Sept. 25.
The county decided that only a full fine arts class would meet the state's order. About 8,500 of the county's 17,800 middle school pupils aren't taking those classes now.
But the county's consideration of ways to get around the requirements worries some parents.
`These courses have value'
"That letter clearly demonstrates that our school administrators do not understand the nature of fine arts education and the nature of the state regulations," said Terra Ziporyn Snider, a Severna Park parent. "I see it as an indication that they just don't understand that these courses have value."
Snider is chairwoman of the Coalition for Balanced Excellence in Education, a group of 300 parents, teachers and concerned residents. The group has been sparring with the county over how to meet the requirements.
The county says changing schedules midyear would impose an "undue hardship on students and staff," according to a letter to state Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick.
But Snider's group, in a letter from the group's attorney to the state, said the county isn't trying to meet the order - or is looking for ways to skirt the rules. Snider said parents don't want fine arts squeezed into other courses; they want full fine arts instruction.
