6 minute read
Educators Celebrating
n Dr. Gethsemane Moss, Ed. D
In addition to July 4th, this month also includes July 30th, National Support Public Education Day. An often overlooked celebration day, let’s take a moment to dive into why such a day is necessary.
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Taking a snapshot of public schools in Solano County, I couldn’t help but pull some data on some of the other school options available to parents. Solano County has about 60,492 students and there are about 5,892,240 statewide. According to the California Department of Education, an estimated 12 public charter schools in Solano County serve about 4,649 students, some with on-site learning and others with independent studies learning. There are an estimated 28 private schools throughout Solano County, as well. Many parents have also decided to homeschool their children, and based on some sources, homeschooling continues to rise.
No doubt, education faces many challenges, from the budget to school safety. According to EdSource Magazine, teachers are leaving the profession due to a variety of reasons. These include being unhappy and burnt out with the work, concerns about site safety, stress over political warfare, and a combination of factors lingering over from the pandemic; another layer of stress that educators, students, and families had to navigate. Educators thrive in a safe environment just as the students do. Staff shortage also has been problematic for many districts. This shortage leaves the teachers and administrators with the task of covering classes and delivering instruction beyond their capacity. Funding also continues to be an issue, and the starting salary for a teacher is about $39,000 per year, which makes it difficult to lean into the profession.
Whichever education plan and path parents decide to take for their students, showing appreciation is always welcomed by those who serve in what has long been considered a thankless profession. You may not have the luxury of donating your time at the school, but a nice thank you note, a positive email, or even a small gift card to a local coffee shop or bakery goes a long way.
“It is like the weight of every family and the social climate crisis is on their shoulders, and they are constantly trying to balance the world in a space that has become engulfed in confusion. Imagine how wonderful it would be if they could focus on the facilitation of instruction and helping students.”
At the end of the day, parents and professional educators want what is best for every student so that they can succeed. Parents can help support educators by showing appreciation throughout the school year. Give a joyous shout-out or send a positive note to a school employee (the paraeducator, the principal, the custodial, the crossing guards, the superintendent, or anyone else who works at a school). Educational staff members deal with a lot of trauma daily, sometimes including physical and verbal abuse, and they aren’t thanked enough for their daily sacrifice. It is like the weight of every family and the social climate crisis is on their shoulders, and they are constantly trying to balance the world in a space that has become engulfed in confusion. Imagine how wonderful it would be if they could focus on the facilitation of instruction and helping students. They can’t just do their jobs because they are too busy verbally and physically dodging bullets.
Whether your student attends public, private, home, or charter, you can still partner with your student’s school and the community, find ways to keep the line of communication open and participate in helping students navigate success. Get involved and volunteer. Find out what programs are offered. Maybe there is a need for instruments to help support early music programs. See yourself as a potential resource. Meet with your child’s teacher(s) at the beginning of the school year. Set up a time to meet with the site administration and the superintendent. Building positive relationships creates a foundation for what is possible instead of waiting for what could go wrong. When actively engaged, we understand what is taking place in the classrooms and on the school campuses. B
Artist Peter McNeill Portraying the Outdoor Light
n Jean Purnell
“I always drew as a kid,” recalls Peter McNeill, sitting in his bright, high-ceilinged studio in the Benicia Arsenal. “I remember being allowed to draw pictures if I finished my lessons. My parents encouraged it without pushing it.” He liked to draw people, landscapes, and things from his imagination. He started painting in high school and has never stopped. McNeill’s art is primarily representational, devoted to plein air landscapes of northern California and life drawings. Recently, he has also created abstract works.
Peter grew up in Green Valley and attended Fairfield High School. He enrolled at UC San Diego for two years, then transferred to San Luis Obispo to study architecture, but lasted only a short time in that program. “I had always been interested in art and architecture, and I took painting classes at San Diego. I liked architecture, but somehow didn’t see myself as an architect.” He briefly attended California College of the Arts. He put college on hold for a while, took odd jobs, and traveled a bit, eventually completing a degree in design from UC Davis in 1984.
McNeill settled on a day job with AT&T in 1986. He started in outside plant engineering, drawing copper telephone cable jobs. By the time he finished, 32 years later, he was a staff manager writing guidelines for putting in fiber optic cable. “My career spanned the technical evolution from copper all the way to fiber optics.” He retired in 2018.
McNeill describes his landscapes as “plein air realism,” using oil paint with assorted brush types and sizes. He strives to portray the outdoor light and color, with an intuitive sense of space and distance. “It’s important not to hide the fact that it’s a painting. I’ve been trying to teach myself to work faster. Just get the paint on. Put a stroke of color on there and that’s enough to look like it.” He works on small surfaces outdoors.
Studio paintings allow him to work larger, but not always with the same vigor and immediacy. He lives in Walnut Creek, less than a mile from Mt. Diablo State Park, with his spouse Jenny, also an artist. “I’ve painted the same scene one mile inside the park at least a dozen times.”
Peter attributes his focus on color combinations and the color of light to the influence of plein air painter and teacher Kevin Milligan, now a Carmel gallerist, who he studied with in his early 40s. “He’s a tremendous colorist. He awoke new sensibilities in me, mainly about color. Colors can tell you so much about what it’s like being there, how warm, humid, or dry it is. That’s what’s interesting to me, trying to paint what I can’t see, the air.”
McNeill has been studying life drawing since the late 1970s. His figurative drawings are done with Conté crayon and charcoal pencils. He often uses a white Conté crayon on dark paper for the pop of contrast. He drew with a group in Crockett for almost twenty years prior to the interruption of the pandemic.
His abstract works grew out of an experimentation with how paint acts and how fast it dries when applied thin or thick. “For a long time, I needed to have a subject in front of me from which to work. It’s only been in the past few years that I felt comfortable painting abstract work that is my own. I started with simple shapes, rectangles, that suggested different things to me … like flags if they were horizontal. I take colors I like, lay out a basic shape, and then let the paint pool or drip. I’m not trying to do anything specific, I’m willing to watch accidents happen. I’ve had a few people come in and see color field stuff in my work and say ‘Rothko.’ But it’s very different. His works have layers of paint put on, very subtly, as opposed to mine, with layers put on so thick that they can drip. I think a drip would have insulted Rothko’s sensibilities.”
In addition to the abstract works of Diebenkorn and Rothko, McNeill admires the “incomprehensible technical abilities” of John Singer Sargent. He keeps physically active by playing tennis, attending a yoga group, and playing the piano about a half hour a day. “It’s good for the brain. It’s physical, emotive, analytical — every part of your brain is working at one time.”
In addition to participating in Benicia Arsenal Open Studios, McNeill has been showing his work at the Valley Art Gallery for the last twelve years. The gallery is located at 1661 Botelho Drive, Suite 110, in Walnut Creek. To see more of McNeill’s work, and for hours of operation, visit valleyartgallery.org/artist/peter-mcneill/.
