Taylor Spurr took a deep breath before her entrance. As the stage lights hit the high school student’s face, a surge of adrenaline rushed through her. This is a feeling like no other—the feeling of performing.

The School District of Lee County has established arts programs in all 15 of its high schools. Cypress Lake, Lehigh Senior and North Fort Myers high schools are arts magnets, which focus on further developing students' talents in specific disciplines. The school district can offer supplemental funding based on program size and need, but most programs fund themselves from ticket sales.

Jason Thomashefsky, assistant director of arts, activities and athletics for the district, stated in an email that the school district fully supports arts in education.

“We have a robust level of programs available at every grade level, and our students participate in local, state, and national competitions,” Thomashefsky stated. “We are proud that enrollment in fine arts programs has doubled in the last five years and that Lee County is one of the few school districts in Florida that has not cut any arts programs.”

Thomashefsky said that principals handle allocating their theater teachers’ budgets, so each program has a different amount of money.

Kaci Davis, theater director at Island Coast High School, struggles with funding.

“They give me nothing,” Davis said. “It’s a mixture of fundraising and my own personal money.”

Island Coast High School produces two musicals and one play each year. Students not only perform but also build sets and run technology for each production. Davis is always looking for fundraising opportunities to support these activities.

“It cuts back a lot because we must look at what shows can be done, but also what I can borrow or what I have that can be repurposed,” Davis said.

Davis said that many don’t understand the importance of the arts in K-12 education. Last June, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis cut the state’s $32 million arts budget. Fortunately, this did not affect the School District of Lee County, but Davis said the decision was concerning because the arts support student learning.

Davis said theater can teach math to students who don’t learn best in a traditional way.

“It’s the same thing they were covering in geometry class two class periods ago; they didn’t understand it then, but the way I put it to build a set piece they understood it,” Davis said.

Davis said that when students do scene work and characterization, they are also analyzing written text.

“It’s not written analysis, but it is verbal,” Davis said. “The students’ ability to use these skills, which are not traditional for education, allows them to learn and better understand.”

Lehigh Senior High School is a designated magnet school, and students can major in musical theater, acting or technical theater. It produces three musicals as well as a regular play and a one-act play. Students are involved in all aspects of each production, such as choreography, set building and technical elements. The program handles all its funding, and most comes from ticket sales and fundraising. They started this year with around $9,000 after buying show rights, which can cost thousands of dollars alone.

Miguel Cintron, theater director at Lehigh Senior High School, said that even with a $9,000 budget, it’s still barely enough to run his program. Last year's spring musical, “Hadestown: Teen Edition,” cost just under $3,000 for the show’s rights and accompaniment, not including sets and costumes.

“These little knick-knacks here and there that you really don’t think about,” Cintron said. “It just adds up.”

Cintron said the key to making it work is to recycle everything and borrow materials from other arts organizations.

“I am always making deals with everybody I know in theater,” Cintron said. “That’s the great thing about our community; we're always borrowing stuff from each other.”

Cintron said he is fortunate his school’s administration values the theater program, because not all programs are supported.

Taylor Spurr, a 12th-grade musical theater major at Lehigh Senior High School, credits theater for improving her life.

“Doing my first ever musical, that was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Spurr said. “It helped me come out of my shell, and it gave me something that I couldn’t imagine a world in which I'm not performing.”

When Spurr is not rehearsing after school, she works part time at a customer service job. Spurr said theater has given her the skills to succeed at work.

“I’m always the first person they want to put on window, because I know how to talk to other people,” Spurr said. “I have a confidence that the average person doesn't have.”

Spurr said she is lucky to be involved in an active and supported theater program. She noted that one of her friends, whom she met doing community theater, attends a different high school in the district that doesn’t have a theater program.

“He would tell me how dull his life felt,” Spurr said. “He felt he didn’t connect with anyone in school, and he was not doing well in school, and I know he is a really bright person.”

Spurr said her involvement in Lehigh’s theater program motivates her to attend school each day.

“It might really affect your grades,” Spurr said. “If I had nothing to look forward to at the end of the day, I don’t think I would show up to school.”

Cintron said his theater students learn teamwork, social skills, problem solving, time management and the ability to work under pressure. They also learn how to build and use power tools through set construction and prop design.

“Even if you are going to be a lawyer or a manager in some building, there are skills in theater that can help you with that,” Cintron said. “If you leave this program and never do theater again, there’s so many skills that they have gained.”

Cintron said that students who are involved in theater not only gain transferable skills but also learn how to emote.

“Someone could probably articulate their problem and issue perfectly, but stoically without emotion,” Cintron said. “My kids can communicate and be more inspiring.”

Like Davis, Cintron said theater is essential to education, and the arts need to remain a priority for the school district.

“If you want well-rounded kids, you support the center,” Cintron said. “If you want a good employee, hire a theater kid,” Cintron said.