Press release - January 30, 2009
Visual, Performing and Folk Art
Magnet School to Dedicate
Fine Arts Center
Press release - January 30, 2009
Luther Burbank Elementary School in Artesia, recently designated a visual, performing and folk art magnet school in the ABC Unified School District, will dedicate its Multipurpose Room as the Margaret Harryman Fine Arts Center on Friday, Feb. 13, 2009.
To kick off the celebration, students from all grades will sing a tribute song to Margaret Harryman, a beloved retired teacher who worked at Burbank for 35 years, in front of the school at 10:30 a.m. The official ceremony will be held from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Harryman will help with the ribbon cutting.
Civic leaders from Artesia and Cerritos as well as ABC Unified officials have been invited to the event. Among those expected to attend include Superintendent Dr. Gary Smuts and other district administrators.
The magnet program at Burbank is a federally funded, themed program aimed to attract students from in and outside the district who are seeking an arts-based academic program that reflects America’s cultural richness, according to Wendy Huang, the school’s magnet coordinator. Music, visual arts, performing arts and drama are integrated into the standards-based curriculum incorporating parent and community partnerships, technologically enhanced instruction and frequent art lessons.
A full-time resident specialist, Karyss Gonzalez, whose background includes working on productions for Disney, works with the entire student body on music, dance and theater. In addition, the curriculum is taught by classroom teachers as well as by visiting artists, who specialize in such areas as poetry, African drumming and flamenco dance. The school offers more than 10 after-school arts clubs, including ones focused on flamenco dance, ballet, TV broadcasting, beading, hip-hop dance, kung fu, Chinese language and choir.
The Margaret Harryman Fine Arts Center is the setting for grade-level performances, arts assemblies and culminating events from the various after-school clubs.
The Fine Arts Center is named after Harryman, who taught every grade one time or another during her career at Burbank Elementary School. In addition, she served as assistant principal and principal for several years. She also was an integral member of the Burbank School Site Council for many years. Even after she retired in 2002, she coordinated the school’s Reading Intervention Program for five years.
“Mrs. Harryman worked tirelessly to help students succeed,” said Steve Cizmar, principal of Burbank Elementary. “She is a true teacher in every sense of the word: dedicated, caring, intelligent, compassionate. She has touched thousands of lives in positive ways.”
Harryman started her teaching career in a one-room country schoolhouse in Jefferson County, Iowa. After teaching there one year, she returned to college to complete her bachelor’s degree. After earning her B.A., she taught second grade for three years at Peotone Elementary School in Peotone, Ill., which is 50 miles south of Chicago.
She moved to Long Beach with her family in 1956 and started her career at Burbank in 1957. One of her main teaching philosophies was to remember to “enjoy every student every day,” she said. “Every student has something to contribute to the school community and needs to be held in high esteem.”
“Margaret is one of the kindest persons you will ever come to meet,” said Huang, who worked with Harryman for about 10 years. “She treats everyone as if they are her sons or daughters. During the many years that she was with Burbank, she was a principal, a teacher, an intervention coordinator, track team coach and everything in between. Whenever there was a need, she filled in the void. She did this with grace and consistency. Sometimes I felt that she had more energy than many of us combined, and it was that never-ceasing passion that changed many of our students and made a difference in their lives.”
When she discovered that Burbank was naming its new Fine Arts Center in her honor, she said, “I was truly overwhelmed. It is such an honor to be remembered in such a magnificent way.”
Harryman, who will attend the ceremony with family members, now lives in Hilo on the east side of the Big Island of Hawaii, where she is helping taking care of her three great-grandchildren, third-grader Isaiah; Maya, 3 ½ years old; and newborn Micah.
“I spend most of my time caring for the great grandchildren--reading to them, taking them to the park, which is located across the street from our home, giving Isaiah piano lessons, helping Isaiah with his homework, attending school activities when [their parents] are unable to do so [and
accompanying] Maya on field trips,” she said.
Once a teacher, always a teacher.
