UHS has had a prominent dance program throughout the years.
Students could take beginner dance, all the way to advanced. The class served as an opportunity for students to discover an interest in dance arts who may not have access to classes at a studio.
Each class would perform at four recitals throughout the year for parents and others to watch. There were also other opportunities in dance, such as Advanced Dance, National Dance Honors Society, and the Unified Dance class with the learning for life students. Dance at Urbana High School allowed students to express themself through movement.
Recently, for the 2024-2025 school year, the class was not available for students to take. This decision was made due to the FCPS budget cuts. The Board of Education reviewed its options to fill in a $50 million gap including increasing class sizes.
Many students who took the class really enjoyed it. “It made me work harder on my dance skills and helped me grow as a person. It also helped me make new friends,” said junior Kaitlyn Fuchsman, who took both Dance 1 and 2. Dance was a very social class for students and allowed them to work together.
Several veteran dance students shared their thoughts on the removal of the program. “I was really disappointed and confused because there were a lot of people in the program!” Jenna Wehr, a sophmore and previous member of the Dance 1 class stated.
This decision was very unexpected, and it left everyone very shocked.
People only started to find out the decision of dance during class registration in May. It impacted students’ class selection for this school year significantly. “I got switched into a class that I didn’t want to take, and I can’t switch into anything else because everything’s full. Now I am in a class I don’t like.” said Fuchsman. Izzy Valloric, a member of Dance 1 and National Dance Honors Society, was also upset about the removal of the dance class because she “couldn’t advance further in her dance career at Urbana.”
A lot of students shared how dropping dance over other classes felt like “an unfair decision.” They believed that the other classes offered weren’t as significant as dance. With the gap left by the removal of the program, students recommended alternatives for the class. Students have even come together to make a petition to keep the program alive.
“I think there should be a dance club at the school so that people who took the class last year can still be involved in dance at Urbana,” Valloric suggested.
Making these kinds of decisions can be tough as school faculty. Ms Clabaugh, prinicipal of UHS, gave commentary about the reasoning behind the decision. Ultimately, the settlement came down to the number of students enrolled in dance classes.
“When the board of education decided to increase class size in May, that meant that UHS would lose an additional 5 teaching positions. Because our schedule was already completed, we had to look at classes that were not full. Students did not request certain electives compared to other electives, or certain core class sections were not as full, so we could combine classes” Clabaugh explained.
Not only was dance cut due to low enrollment, but some science electives were too. Clabaugh also shared that the students influence her decision to cut classes. She creates a schedule based on classes students choose. Because so few students chose dance, she eliminated those classes.
Students that selected dance for their 24-25 registration were put into another supplementary elective. There are many other arts and performance classes such as drama, photography, ceramics, are more that students can dive into a deeper interest into the arts field. As of now, there are currently no other plans for any alternative extracurricular activities to fill the gap left by the dance program.
“The process is always the same regardless of budget. We look at what students select for their courses and build a schedule that reflects that. If students choose dance instead of other electives, then we will look to hire a dance teacher to reinstate the program,” Clabaugh concluded.
The decision to cut the dance program here at UHS was by no means easy. With the Board of Education looking to increase class sizes, that means five teaching positions become unavailable. The classes that were not full, which include dance, were considered to be combined into one class. The low interest of the dance class was the primary reason why the program was removed.
If more students were to express interest in dance in the next few years, Urbana could possibly see another dance program in the near future.
