Your tax referendum dollars help support all Charlotte County Schools music, art, and theater programs along with professional performances in the schools and at CPAC, our professional theater in Punta Gorda.

Arts teachers are part of the general school budget as teacher allocations, but the referendum is a huge help in supporting students with access to programing and supplies. Because of your “Yes for Success” vote, our children are able to use instruments without sharing, attend a children’s ballet and experience an opera.



This is how the Arts Referendum money will be spent this year: Secondary Music includes band and chorus in middle and high school. Our children rely on their school to have band instruments available for use. This means it is important to have an inventory of instruments that must be maintained and cleaned. New instruments are purchased annually to keep up with need. This year, we are purchasing tubas, saxophones, trombones, trumpets, flutes, and clarinets. Finally, new music is always needed and maintained in a music library.

Elementary music also purchases smaller instruments like ukuleles and Orff instruments (xylophones, glockenspiels, marimbas, and metallophones). Third graders learn music by playing the recorder and performing with the Punta Gorda Symphony in an interactive concert! Supplies for music help children find their voice (literally) as they learn the basic elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre, dynamics, texture, and form.

Visual arts teachers at all levels use supplies to help students understand the language of art through design elements and principles. Each grade level builds its capacity to rethink, design, and recreate unique solutions to problems.

Schools purchase paint, paper, markers, pencils, clay, and wire, as they expose students to a variety of media.Drama classes in middle and high school love to perform! Costumes and scripts are the most purchased items. Referendum dollars help fund performances at the schools.

Professional children’s theater is brought to Charlotte County to increase access to the Arts. Shows are performed at individual schools and at our professional theater. This year’s children’s theater shows include: Nutcracker (SarasotaBallet), Shakespeare (Asolo Repertory Theater), Pete the Cat (Theater works),Magic School Bus (Theater works), the Carnegie Link Up Interactive Concert (Punta Gorda Symphony) and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Florida StudioTheater). Arts integrated curriculum links the performances to the new BEST standards for English and math. Costs include transportation, booking fees, tech support and supplies. Your vote makes all this possible.

We as a community believe that children must be exposed to the Arts. It is critical to our future to teach students to be a part of a generation of audience members, performers, art consumers, and donors. The Arts create excitement, enthusiasm, and motivate learning. The Arts help children find unique ways to understand and make sense of the world. Thank you for making the Arts important to the growth and education of our children. Your support for the referendum is a commitment to the success of our children. Ellen Harvey is a curriculum specialist with Charlotte County School District.