Please help Bigelow PoPS (Parents of Performing Arts Students) advocate for Bigelow Drama!

Due to the recent budget cuts, the position for Ms. Moriarty, Bigelow’s drama teacher and theater director, has been reduced to 0.78 FTE (full-time equivalent) for the 2023-24 school year (a full-time position is 1.0 FTE). As a result of this reduction, there will be no 8th grade drama class next year as part of the usual rotation of FAA classes. Drama will be offered to 8th graders as an elective, but with the capacity for a much smaller number of students. This is a bad precedent to set moving forward – as many of you know, once something is taken away it is hard to lobby a need to bring it back. 

One easy way to help is to write a quick email to the Interim Superintendent Kathleen Smith at smithkath@newton.k12.ma.us, the new Superintendent, Dr. Anna Nolin (after July 1), and/or the School Committee at schoolcommittee@newton.k12.ma.us. Superintendent Nolin starts her position on July 1, but she has already offered to meet people in small groups over the summer if anyone is interested: Meet and Greet.

We know how important the performing arts are to the Bigelow community, and we have a particularly large cohort of theater kids in the rising 8th grade class. To quote a current 8th grader at Bigelow, “Why are the arts always getting cut?” The reinstatement of the elementary strings program was a victory coming out of the recent budget negotiations, and one major reason that happened is because our community spoke up in support of the arts. Please consider doing the same for the issues mentioned above.