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Philly School District Announces Efforts To Redesign Arts Education

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The School District of Philadelphia is re-designing its arts education program in the wake of a study showing the arts community, teachers and civic leaders are looking for more opportunities for youngsters. It announced the new initiative Tuesday at the Charles Henry School in West Mount Airy.

During an event to showcase the role of music and dance and culture in schools, Superintendent Dr. William Hite announced a plan to re-direct resources and expand art and music education across the district.

Hite says the district has many arts organizations already contributing to the program. Now, he says, the plan is to better organize those efforts.

"We're trying to be more intentional about how we match those organizations and resources that are already in our schools now to kind of what the needs of the schools are," Hite said.

Frank Machos is executive director of the district's Arts & Academic Enrichment office.

"We set a goal to make sure that we have equal access for every student in the district with culturally relevant programs that engage the students," he said. "We know we have some schools that have more support and more programs, So moving forward we just want to make sure all of our teachers have all the resources they need so every kid can have arts education."

He says the initial focus will be on elementary grades 1 through 5 with an anticipated rollout in the 2018-2019 school year.

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