By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — Through the ages, the arts have typically needed a benefactor. On Monday, an entire arts academy got some much-needed financial aid thanks to Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy.

Kennedy presented Pawtucket’s Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing and Visual Arts with a check for $292,000. The money, secured through Kennedy’s seat on the Appropriations Committee, will be available for use toward equipment, supplies, and as a general supplement to the school’s budget.
“With so many of our nation’s schools struggling to meet the artistic and innovative needs of their students, it is essential that schools such as the Jackie Walsh School for Performing and Visual Arts exist to nurture our children’s growth and creativity,” said Kennedy. “I am more than happy to help the JMW by ensuring that every child has the opportunity to cultivate their own creative passions and ideas,” he added.
Kennedy said that the arts “have never been more important in a global economy.” He noted that so many skills involving the arts, such as packaging, style, and presentation, are key in making a business run successfully, and told the students at JMW that they are “learning to be presentation makers.”
Kennedy, noting that his mother, Joan, was an arts educator, lamented the fact that the arts are often left out of the core curriculum at many schools due to budget constraints, let alone having a school like JMW that is devoted to the arts. Yet, he noted, “studies show the arts complement academics at every stage. If you’re engaged in the arts, you’re more apt to be engaged
in other aspects of your life,” he stated.
Referring to the JMW students’ above-average performance on the 2007-2008 New England Common Assessment Program tests, Kennedy said this is indicative of “how well the school is succeeding in its mission.” He added that last year, the number of applications from incoming freshmen at the arts school, which accepts students from around the state as well as Pawtucket, was an increase of three times the number received in the previous year.
The Congressman noted the need for education reform and said that alternatives must be found to funding local school systems primarily through property taxes. “The status quo can no longer suffice,” he said. He added that if something is avant garde, has supporters willing to fight for it and has a solid proposal for success — all attributes of the JMW — it should be brought to the attention of those at the Statehouse.
Schools Superintendent Hans Dellith also gave high marks to the JMW and its students, and said he had witnesses several recent performances. He said that the school has received state grants in the past, but this is the first federal grant, and said it would help to blunt some of the impact of the reduced state aid to schools.
“As we enter out third year of operation, we were operating on a shoestring,” said Dellith. “With this money, we can establish the school the way it should be established.”
JMW Principal John Haidemenos, in his first year as principal, thanked Kennedy for the appropriation, saying it will be put toward the upcoming year’s budget. He also thanked all of the school and city officials who “basically put their heads on the chopping block to begin an arts school.”
Haidemenos praised the students for their hard work as well, noting that in 2009, the state’s first public arts high school will graduate its first class. He added that the schools’ namesake, former deputy superintendent Jacqueline M. Walsh, would be proud to see the school functioning as a “state-of-the-arts” facility.
School Committee Chairman Gordon Gould said he was thrilled with the appropriation for JMW and is a strong supporter in the arts-oriented curriculum it is offering students. Without JMW, he noted, the local students would be absorbed into Tolman.
Noting that all children are different and have varying learning abilities and needs, he said he would some day like to see Pawtucket have its own vocational/trade school, and feels such a facility would greatly reduce the current drop-out rate.