During Friday’s graduation for Bryan Station High School, people heard a performance of “Cielito Lindo” by Mariachi Escudo de Bryan Station, which Fayette school district officials describe as Kentucky’s only known high school Mariachi band.
“These students did an incredible job, and it’s an example of our ongoing work to expand access to a wide array of diverse arts opportunities for our students,” Fayette Public Schools Board Chairman Tyler Murphy said on a Facebook post.
With some community members upset because some school councils are cutting arts programs, Murphy said in an April post that in last year’s budget cycle, the school board made an additional $1. 4 million investment in visual and performing arts at the district level.
In the 2022 fiscal year cycle, district-level expenditures in fine arts amounted to $347,315, he said.
At a November school board meeting, Fayette school’s Director of Fine Arts Katherine Lowther, said a “direct and clear result of that investment” was the mariachi band.