In early March, comic book artist and illustrator Jerry DeCaire travelled from Michigan to share his work with students at South Highlands Middle School in Union Springs and Lowndes Middle School in Fort Deposit. Mr. DeCaire has drawn for such popular comics as "X-Men" and "Wolverine." He talked about the importance of proportion and perspective when drawing the human form, and used algebra and geometry to demonstrate his techniques. Mr. DeCaire's visits were sponsored by the Auburn University Center for the Arts & Humanities. Thanks to Mrs. Kathy Capps (South Highlands) and Mrs. Peggy Grant (Lowndes) for coordinating Mr. DeCaire's workshops at their schools.

The photos were taken in Ms. Haynes' 7th-grade math class at South Highlands, where students created a wall of art to welcome Mr. DeCaire.

More Information for 2nd Community Audit

Community Audit – Second Meeting

There are several things that are necessary for this meeting to be successful:

1) All committee members should bring the Scoring Guides they filled out during the first meeting. If a synopsis of the findings of each break-out group was written, that would be helpful, too. The committee will need as much documentation as possible about what happened at the first meeting.

2) If there are any members of the committee who will be joining the group for the first time, they should have a copy of the full “Community Audit for Arts Education” document, not just the Scoring Guide. They should read at least the first part. It would be helpful if someone could explain it to them in person.

This second meeting will be a time of fleshing out the items on the Scoring Guide that need more detailed attention, with the three breakout groups working independently. Near the end of the meeting, the entire committee will meet again and report any progress made, as well as any "Next Steps and Future Priorities" that have been identified.

Before they leave the meeting, the committee should identify several items that could be completed within the next 6 weeks, without spending any money. In addition, they should identify several items that will be more long-range projects, might require additional funding, but some aspects could be started now.

When the items are identified, the group should decide who will accomplish each task and by what date. After the meeting, someone should type up this list and send a copy to all committee members.

This will give the committee members something to work on after they leave the meeting. A project as massive as this can become an exercise in frustration unless there are interim goals and objectives to keep the committee focused.

2nd Community Audit

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The messge below is from Donna Russell about the Community Audit

Good afternoon. I have enjoyed being in your schools conducting the Community Audit for Arts Education.

If you haven’t scheduled your second meeting – now is the time to do so! This second meeting takes about 3 hours and it usually very productive. I have attached the information you will need.

Review the document from your first meeting – get with your committee and complete the Summary if Next Steps and Future Priorities toward the back of the document package. This will help make the second meeting run very smoothly.

The following are the dates that are available:

May 10
May 15
May 22
May 24
June 5
June 12
June 27
June 28
July 17
July 24

I have been to a couple of 2nd meetings and they have been great. A lot has been accomplished.
Call or e mail me as soon as possible.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Donna Russell

Children's Literature Related to the Arts

When Graham Elementary (the school where I was principal) was named an Arts Pilot Project, one of easily doable things we did was to search for books related to the arts and purchase them for our library. This link will take you to a couple of documents which you can download. One is a list of the actual titles we purchased. The other is a listing I had come across somewhere. I hope these are helpful. When you click on the documents, if you are asked for a password, simply click "Cancel." you do not need a password to simply download from this site.