The new school year has faced many challenges with the departure of Fine Arts Academy assistant principal Dr. Samuel Parrott last year and the dissolution of other administrative positions, including the assistant to the fine arts director, Tonya Moore. Administrator Teri Kirby will fill the position of Fine Arts Academy director due to her knowledge in a variety of fine arts and her ability to effectively lead the academy in previous years. While Moore will no longer be directly affiliated with the fine arts department, she will continue to be involved in fine arts activities and remains at McCallum as the secretary of counselors. Administration will continue with fine arts traditions, such as ambassadors, and leave the program relatively unchanged for the first few years.
There have been three major administrative changes within the Fine Arts Academy in Moore’s eight-year career at McCallum. Although Parrott only served as the director for two years, he left a big impact on the community.
“He was an awesome, awesome director,” Moore said. “We still keep in touch, and he sent me cookies for my birthday.”
Senior Maggie Brown, a fine arts ambassador, agrees with the impression Parrott has left. Although Brown is sad to see Parrott leave, she is thankful that there is a place for him as the fine arts director of Seguin ISD.
“[Parrott’s] experience with fine arts really made it so that you could tell that he cared about the fine arts department, and we’re all very happy that he’s able to continue helping other people in Seguin,” Brown said. “I’m going to miss him a lot, and I think that a lot of the other people at Mac will miss him a lot because of the impression he made while he was here.”
While the director of the academy and the position of Fine Arts Academy assistant to the director has been dissolved, Moore will remain at McCallum as the secretary of counselors. This new position allows Moore to talk with more students than before.
“I’ll just miss being around the staff and the kids [of the academy],” Moore said. “But here in this new role, I’m able to connect with all the kids, even in fine arts, and I’m still connected with everybody, even if you weren’t in the Fine Arts Academy.”
Although Parrott will no longer be a part of Austin ISD, Moore will remain involved with the program by sponsoring the step team and helping out with the ambassador program.
Moore and principal Andy Baxa believe there will be a lot more work for Kirby with the cutting of Moore’s former position. Despite these challenges, such as more paperwork and scheduling, Baxa is thankful to still have Moore in a position at McCallum.
“Kirby will feel [the challenges] more than anything else because Ms. Moore took on a lot of the clerical stuff that has to happen with processing applications, processing audition times, getting all those things organized,” Baxa said. “I was glad they were able to keep Ms. Moore at McCallum by sliding her into a different position whenever another position came open.”
Kirby’s extensive experience with the fine arts through painting, music with piano, piccolo, flute, choir and dance with ballet and jazz classes convinced Baxa to reposition her as the fine arts assistant principal rather than outsourcing the job.
“Whenever I looked within my team, Kirby’s background really started to speak as somebody that might have a background in the fine arts,” Baxa said. “So with that, and also her being my academy director already, it made sense to slide her into that role, to take on that extra responsibility of leading the Fine Arts Academy.”
At McCallum, Kirby sponsors the cheer team and has sponsored dance teams at previous districts that she has worked at. While this year marks the beginning of a bigger transition overall, Baxa does not foresee any significant change in the program as a whole.
“You’ve got to understand the program, understand the unique aspects of what we do here, before you can effectively make change,” Baxa said. “Just because we change leaders doesn’t mean we throw out things that are working well.”
The long-standing program of fine arts ambassadors, implemented by Moore, takes part in the middle school recruitment process of the academy. Kirby plans to continue this program.
“I definitely want to keep that outreach going and see really how I can support the ambassadors,” Kirby said. “The kids want to hear from you, not so much me, the actual people that recruit prospective students to McCallum.”
Brown looks forward to participating in the ambassador program for her second year as a representative of piano. Although it will take some time to transition, Brown believes ambassadors can help with the change.
“Our job is to welcome Ms. Kirby and make it as smooth of a transition as possible,” Brown said. “And take on the ambassador program not just as a chance to represent, but also to lead and help bring over the things from the previous administration that we liked and then also work to change the things that we think we can do better.”
Despite the adjustments in the program and administration of the whole school, all traditions possible will be kept going, including the ambassadors. Kirby is excited to experience fine arts and administration in it again.
“I used to be a big supporter of the fine arts at a different district, and I have not been able to do that as I came to McCallum,” Kirby said. “[I look forward to] just being with them and really being able to experience the great things that are going on here.”
