'The arts bring out the best of us!': High school teacher invokes Hamilton as she SINGS appeal against funding cuts in education board meeting

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One high school teacher brought out her inner Broadway star in a battle to prevent the fine arts budget from being slashed.

Joanna Chilcoat Fellows used the hit musical Hamilton to protest budget cuts at the Board of Education Budget Hearing held on January 16 at Carver Educational Services Center to try and make board members understand the importance of arts.

'Theater and film are two of the 10 preps I teach at Seneca Valley High School,' Fellows said. 

'So when I heard there were cuts to the arts budget, in musical theater when someone's overcome with emotion, they have to sing.'

Joanna Chilcoat Fellows used hit musical Hamilton to protest arts budget cuts at the Board of Education Budget Hearing held on January 16 at Carver Educational Services Center in Rockville, Maryland

The superintendent of the Montgomery County Public Schools Jack Smith proposed cutting the one full-time fine arts content specialist to a part-time position.

Fellows rewrote the song Alexander Hamilton to try and get her points across.

She opened with the lines: 'How does the superintendent, counsel and board of education think fine arts don't need administration? We need a content specialist because the best of us is making just a mess of it, we are stressing it'.

She opened with the lines: 'How does the superintendent, counsel and board of education think fine arts don't need administration?' 

Other highlights include: 'Because the arts bring out the best of us, and there's a million things that arts can do, support arts now, support arts now' and 'you talk about mental health you talk about community, the arts are where it's at for influencing unity'. 

 'The replacement lyrics just kind of fell out,' Fellows said to Germantown Pulse. 

'It took a couple of hours. My students helped me. They listened to a few of my drafts — and my husband, of course. He probably knows it by heart at this point. Once the idea was born, it was easy to write.'

The single content specialist oversees all visual arts, dance, and the theater programs for the entire county, which includes nearly 200 schools.

'It has meant a lot to have that content specialist in the central office to have a voice and somebody who is supportive and a unifying force for all the theater teachers in the county,' Fellows said. 

Fellows also had a few verses from a High School Musical song written, but Hamilton just 'felt right'

Fellows rewrote the song Alexander Hamilton from the hit Broadway show to try and to get her points across

'When I heard they were going to cut that position in half and make it part-time position, I was aghast. If the cuts go through, that content specialist will do that job part-time and teach in a school part-time.' 

'That is a disservice to that person in that position. It is a disservice to fine arts teachers throughout the county, and it is a disservice to our students.'

Fellows also had a few verses from a High School Musical song written, but Hamilton just 'felt right'.

'Especially with all the influence that Hamilton has had in bringing attention to arts education, and the need for diversity, and how empowering Hamilton has been for so many people,' she explained.

'I knew I was going to testify the following week and I thought that I had to find a way to make the Board of Education feel the way that I feel. What better way to do that than to show them the power of the arts by giving them something like that.'

Fellows currently teaches English, media studies, film and theater at Seneca Valley High School. 

DailyMail.com has reached out to Fellows for comment. 

Fellows currently teaches English, media studies, film and theater at Seneca Valley High School