Parents, students and teachers packed the Benicia High School Performing Arts Building for an informational meeting Monday night about the new school board-approved graduation requirements where they voiced their concerns about their potential impact on art and elective courses.

At the March 16 school board meeting, the board held a discussion and first reading of the proposed new requirements to go into effect for the class of 2022, which Superintendent Charles Young said were modeled after the University of California and California State University requirements, although with some modifications. The required amount of units for graduation would remain at 220, but some of the units would be redistributed to additional requirements. The proposed changes were as follows:

* Health and the semesterlong elective that accompanied it would be replaced by a new yearlong course titled “Get Focused,” intended to help freshmen be successful by identifying their life and career goals early on and develop a pathway to prepare for that field, according to its description in the 2017-18 course catalog.

* Three years of math would be required with a minimum requirement of Integrated Math 2 instead of the current two-year requirement.

* Three years of science, two of which must have a lab, would be required instead of two.

* There would be no changes in the requirements for English, social science and physical education.

* Instead of students having the option to take either one year of a foreign language or fine art, they would now be required to take two years of the same foreign language plus one year of a visual or performing art, although per state law, it may be substituted for a Career Technical Education course.

* As many of the elective units would be allocated to the new requirements, students would now be required to take 35 elective units as opposed to 75.

At the April 6 meeting, the board voted to approve the new requirements as part of the consent calendar, in which generally routine items like overnight field trip approvals and acceptance of gifts are approved simultaneously by one vote unless a trustee requests that an item be pulled for discussion.

Drama teacher Nathan Day said one of the reasons why the informational meeting was called by the parent groups Students of Performing Arts and Panther Band Boosters was because faculty and the community felt they were not kept informed as the discussions were taking place and being voted on.

“We stumbled on this information about six weeks after it was voted in board policy,” he said. “The community didn’t have a good faith effort to give their opinion.”

Day also invited Young to reiterate the reasons for the graduation requirements and what they would entail. Young said one of the reasons was that data indicated that only 48 percent of students graduated prepared to go a UC or CSU.

“Last year and this year, we talked about it and we thought ‘What’s the best way to help the entire system help all of our kids graduate and be college and career ready so that they have as many options available to them as possible?’” he said.

“Some kids when they graduate, they don’t want to go down that (UC) path,” he said. “We understand. We also believe that if a student graduates college and career ready, they’ll be more able to enter into the workforce or they have the choice to go to a four-year school, or if they go to a community college, they’re more able to continue there and transfer.”

Young also stressed that the district and school are not planning to cut visual or performing arts.

“That isn’t what we believe at all,” he said.

With more than a year for the new requirements to kick in— the class of 2022 will enter high school in the fall of 2018—Young said the district would be listening to feedback and taking that into consideration.

Many students and parents asked questions and expressed their concerns during the meeting. Emily Sackett— a senior who has participated in band, musical theater and dance— felt that requiring students to take college-ready courses could negatively affect some of their grade point averages.

“Even though you’re requiring them to take these classes, the grades the majority of the people would be getting in those classes are not up to UC or CSU standards,” she said. “What are you going to do since the obvious goal is to UCs and CSUs? The unfortunate reality is that the majority of the students taking these new required classes are not going to have the grades.”

Sackett had created a petition to highlight support for the arts at Benicia High. As of the meeting, it had garnered more than 330 signatures.

Principal Brianna Kleinschmidt said that the requirements would continue to provide a range of offerings, even if students did not have a desire to take Advanced Placement courses.

“Students still have that choice as far as what level they want to be in,” she said.

Kleinschmidt said one of the goals of the new Get Focused course to help plan their high school paths early on.

“What we want to do, starting with our incoming freshmen, is really have those conversations to help them plan what courses they’re interested in, what areas they’re interested in, to have a clearer idea of what classes they’re gonna take and help them get where they want to be, whether that is college or not,” she said. “What we’re finding out is that for a lot our students, the plan is to go on to a two-year college, and they can figure it out from there or transfer because there’s such great opportunities to transfer from a two-year college.”

However, she added, “We’re not doing our job if they’re not college-ready, and I consider a two-year college to be college-ready.”

Kleinschmidt acknowledged that some students not planning to go to a four-year college might struggle but others might do well. The goal, she said, is to communicate to all students early and often.

Day disagreed with the notion that the new requirements were still providing students with choice.

“When you have an elective course that’s built in, that’s no longer an elective course,” he said. “The student hasn’t elected to take them.”

Day added that while he does not have an issue with A-G requirements, he would like for students to have choice and he felt the new requirements did not allow for much room to take multiple disciplines.

“One of the things that makes this a beautiful campus is that we have students in AP classes in multiple sections as well as art and music all at the same time,” he said. “This, we believe, takes that away.”

Other speakers in the audience addressed that its fine arts programs contributed to Benicia Unified School District’s positive reputation, that the UCs and CSUs only require two years of science, four-year colleges generally look for well-rounded students and that art is a helpful application for all disciplines. Sydney Chow, a 2016 graduate, said that performing arts make it easier to reaffirm the lessons of other subjects.

“The arts make all these things comprehensible,” she said. “Theater is history, music is math. Even though I may be bored out of my mind writing a history paper, when I do a musical about a historical subject, everything comes alive. While that may not be math or science, are you trying to prepare them for just college or prepare them to be successful citizens in life?”

Another major issue addressed was the lack of bond money being provided to fund repairs to the PAB, which according to the 1982 yearbook, completed its construction ahead of the 1981-82 school year. Former Benicia High drama teacher Christine Mani said it was last renovated 18 years ago, which consisted of new carpeting and additional seats.

“We fought for bond measures and fixes,” she said. “For the last four years, I personally fought, the parent groups for the drama and dance program fought to try and make sure we were part of the bond measure.”

Among the issues cited by Mani and other parents were leaks in the drama room, no safety cables for overhead lights in the auditorium and the facility posing safety issues in the event of an earthquake.

Young said he noticed the issues with the PAB when he first became superintendent. He noted that the district had $10 to million in unallocated Measure S bond money and that the board would discuss how to use it at the June 15 meeting as the top priority projects are winding down. Repairs to the PAB, he said, are at the top of the second priority list.

“We have talked about this facility a lot,” he said.

Mani said that part of the frustration has been that since Measure S was approved by voters in 2014, the district has changed superintendents, BHS has changed principals and the Measure S bond has changed directors.

“Every time band, drama and dance have gotten together to fight, those people went away,” she said. “Whoever said ‘Yes, we get it,’ would walk away. The next people would come in and not get it. Part of this was hoping they get it, again.”

Day said the purpose of the meeting was not to vilify the district but to provide a venue for people to express their concerns.

“As much as we disagree with what’s going on, they have been doing a lot of good work,” he said. “Let’s not discount that, but we do need to make sure that if you agree or disagree with them, let them know.”

The next school board meeting is at 7 p.m., Thursday, June 1 at the District Office, and members of the public are invited to speak their minds during the public comment portion.