East Elementary principal embeds passion for arts in education

For a Jefferson City Schools principal, fine arts is a passion and an educational tool.

“You can teach so much through the arts in a regular classroom setting, which is exactly how I taught,” said Rhonda Allen-Lewis, principal of East Elementary School.

From the start, Allen-Lewis has been brimming with creativity. As a young girl, she was captivated with writing and telling stories, often having her younger brother act in made-up performances she wrote or play pretend-school with her.

And simultaneously, as that craving for the arts was fostered, a passion for teaching took over Allen-Lewis like a force of nature. At a young age, she liked to put her teacher hat on, line up her stuffed animals and her younger brother in her room and hand out classroom worksheets.

She even turned her closet walls into a bulletin board, gluing her pretend school materials on the walls.

“My mom makes a joke now that they’re still pulling glue off of the wall from my old room,” Allen-Lewis said.

Those years of pretend-teaching — and then real ones while studying education at Lincoln University — landed Allen-Lewis a professional teaching gig in the same school where her mother taught, and the one she finds herself in now: East Elementary.

Allen-Lewis’ first teaching experience was leading a third-grade classroom in the same building her mother was the art teacher in.

“It was awesome, just because her and I really think on the same wavelength,” she said.

As luck would have it, Allen-Lewis was named Jefferson City Public Schools’ teacher of the year in 2017, two decades after her mother, Saundra Allen, received the same award. Being guided in her early career by her mother, Allen-Lewis said one of the most important lessons she learned was mastering how to connect with children.

Unlocking that skill, her mother told Allen-Lewis, will make teaching much easier.

“She has so many students that are grown and even teach in (the) Jeff City school district that absolutely adore her,” she said. ” I have been taught by a master teacher.”

Allen-Lewis took that advice to heart, and realized incorporating her creativity and love for the arts into her teaching is also a clever way to help kids learn better.

A learning environment where art is incorporated into the teaching — whether through theater, music or visual arts — helps students focus and engage better with the educational material, Allen-Lewis said.

“I have a 30-year-old student right now (who) just sent me a message not that long ago that says, ‘I will never forget how the United States became the United States because I did a rap to it,'” Allen-Lewis said. “And she can recite the entire thing back to me today.”

Arts-focused education isn’t just about learning the color wheel either, she added. Art can help reach students who might not otherwise be engaged in learning through traditional ways, Allen-Lewis said.

“It’s more about critical thinking, which is huge,” Allen-Lewis said. “It’s also about problem solving. It’s about also learning who you are as a person.”

For many years throughout her educational career, Allen-Lewis has also hosted after-school theater programs.

When she was an elementary teacher at Thorpe Gordon Elementary School, hosting the drama club was one of her favorite ways to interact with kids. It gives students a chance to develop some independence and individuality, but particularly, theater felt like a welcoming space for all students.

The children’s theater group “kind of opened up this world for people that didn’t feel like they were included in any other area,” Allen-Lewis said.

For Allen-Lewis, theater provided her with the same feeling of acceptance, too. Now, she’s even established her own children’s theater company to continue her mission of inclusion and diversity in local arts programs.

TY (Theater for Youth), LLC was established in 2025, and in July 2026, Allen-Lewis hosted her first children’s theater camp and performance.

Following through on the long-time dream of hers to open a children’s theater company was another step in her calling to make theater accessible to all types of kids.

“I really want casts, all across, to be made up of everybody — and I know that’s easier said than done — I just think it’s so important,” she said. “Our world doesn’t look like how one person looks, and I think it’s important for everybody to experience that.”

Allen-Lewis plans to strengthen the theater company during the next few years so she can retire into her second passion. Meanwhile, her time at East Elementary will continue to evolve artistically as the school has plans to evolve into a fine arts academy by fall 2027.

Lizbeth Garcia/News Tribune photo: East Elementary School Principal Rhonda Allen-Lewis poses for a photo Monday outside of of East Elementary School. Rhonda-Lewis has a love for the arts and education. She feels arts-focused education can help students engage more with their learning, and has even established her own children’s theater company in Jefferson City.