While it's not uncommon to see a boxer or a rap artist flanked by an entourage, it is downright head-snapping to behold the convoy accompanying Lynn's schools superintendent, Nicholas Kostan, when he strolls into the School Committee's budget meeting.

The guy brings a horn section. More precisely, he asks kids from the high school jazz band to lay down some rhythm for the folks who sign the checks.

''I bring a few kids in to do a little miniperformance so committee members don't lose sight of what they're paying for," said Kostan, 57, who is now in his fifth year on the job. ''I want them to realize that this isn't just a line item on a budget. This is what we're getting."

What Lynn is getting is one of the most integrated performing and visual arts curriculums in the state. What Lynn is doing is swimming against the tide.

According to a nationwide survey released last month by the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy, the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has pushed state and local policymakers to divert funding to reading and math, the two subjects with the strictest testing and accountability provisions.

The practice, called ''narrowing curriculum," is widespread. The Center on Education Policy survey reported that 71 percent of the nation's 15,000 school districts have trimmed hours of instruction in history, music, and other subjects since the law's passage.

But not in Lynn. The city's school district remains firmly entrenched within that 29 percent that hasn't budged. Rather than downsize, the district has built upon the arts.

The required and student-elective performing and visual arts curriculum accessible to the 15,000 students in Lynn's public school system isn't merely ambitious; it's also comprehensive.

There is scheduled classroom music and general arts instruction offered at every level from kindergarten through Grade 12 if a school principal requests it. Principals must ''opt in" for fine arts to be incorporated into their faculty budgets at the elementary- and middle-school levels.

For schools in which they are requested, music and visual arts classes are required at the elementary- and middle-school levels. Basic instrumental instruction is added as an elective on a semester basis for middle-schoolers.

''Our focus has been to extend academic opportunities in the arts for students by doing whatever it takes to keep it in the curriculum," said Joseph Picano, 60, the supervisor of fine arts in Lynn's public schools.

At the secondary level, Lynn's fine arts curriculum becomes elective, but it remains part of the scheduled school day and is broad in comparison to those of other local schools. High school music students can choose to pursue four years of credited piano, choral, or band instruction, while visual arts students can select from general art, portraiture, sculpture, ceramics, and portfolio-design classes.

The district employs 31 fine arts faculty members, including 13 roving instructors who teach at more than a dozen of the school system's elementary schools.

On an elective basis, roughly 500 students participate in various segments of the All-City String and Band Program, which in the past five years has evolved into a half-dozen instrument- or style-specific ensembles along with a philharmonic orchestra.

Does a principal's opt-in mean fewer classroom hours devoted to other core subjects? Not in Lynn. The city's contract with the teachers' union provides for a daily 40-minute preparation period in which teachers do not instruct. Fine arts instructors at the elementary- and middle-school levels essentially take over when the other teachers are on break.

''We've had good fine arts initiatives in tough times under serious budget constraints," said state Representative Steven M. Walsh, a Lynn Democrat who is in his 10th year as executive director of Lynn Arts Inc. ''The School Committee has allowed schools to push the direction of fine arts from process to product, and the proof is in the pudding."

In the past 18 months, Lynn's high school instrumental bands have provided musical accompaniment for John F. Kerry's election night rally in Copley Square in 2004 and have opened for jazz legend Maynard Ferguson. The school system's 18-member high school jazz band was one of two high school bands in the state (with Peabody's) to have been invited recently by the Duke Ellington Society to participate in a Boston Symphony Orchestra workshop with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.

In February, Lynn's high school jazz band octet won a silver medal at the New England regionals of the International Association of Jazz Educators.

The man behind the plan is Picano, a Berklee College of Music graduate and a former manager of 128 Volvo who shows relentless enthusiasm for his job.

He plays down his status as the program's architect. But the fact remains that in 1997, Picano took the reins of a department in which concert-band participation had dwindled to eight pupils. He subsequently spearheaded its evolution into what Mayor Edward J. ''Chip" Clancy Jr. calls ''a gem of the city."

''The support of the administration and our tireless staff is what makes this go," said Picano, adding that the fine arts department also benefits from instructional and internship partnerships with the BSO, Boston's Handel and Haydn Society, and Salem's Peabody Essex Museum. ''We have teachers who stay until 7:30 at night or later with no stipend, and they do it without complaint but rather with inspiring passion."

The two-year-old songwriting class offered at Lynn English High exemplifies the depth of the curriculum. In addition to studying the nuts and bolts of composing melodies and lyrics, students produce their own vocal and instrumental tracks as part of a compilation compact disc that they record and distribute.

Songwriting students delegate among themselves the duties of creating a commercial-use CD, including accounting for expenditures and sales revenues.

''They handle everything right down to the liner notes and planning the release party," said a Lynn English music teacher, Steve Coffill, 48, the songwriting class instructor.

The inaugural songwriting class produced a seven-song disk last spring. This year's CD is due for release next month.

''I love the class because it allows you to express your feelings in music," said a Lynn English sophomore, Janelle Coan, a 15-year-old Walter Street resident. ''It's a privilege to be involved with in-school training like this."

Coffill also oversees the burgeoning music lab at Lynn English, where students use computers, sound equipment, and software applications to mix and produce their own creations.

''So many kids in a city like this have no other outlet for their emotions," Coffill said. ''It's really heartwarming to hear them express their experiences in a way they never have before and discover a talent they hadn't been able to show."

More to the point, people are listening. Lynn boasts a citywide investment in arts education.

The fifth annual Lynn Public Schools Arts Show will take place in all three galleries of Lynn Arts Inc. for five weeks, beginning on May 1. A highlight remains various visual arts students' interpretations, in images and words, of instrumental selections played by the high school jazz band.

The fifth annual All-City Vocal Concert, showcasing both middle school and high school chorals, took place last month.

And the elementary schools' string and band concert drew a capacity crowd of 1,100 to Lynn English High Auditorium on March 28 to cap Lynn's Youth Art Month, which featured formal art displays across the city.

On Tuesday evening, the high school jazz band was to stage its second annual Night of Appreciation concert at the Lynn Arts Gallery's black-box theatre as a token of thanks to teachers, officials, community members, and school principals for their support of the music program.

The event is significant to Picano because if a Lynn school principal does not view fine arts as indispensable, the program is not offered there. Both of Lynn's nontechnical high schools offer the comprehensive performing and visual arts curriculum, as do three of four middle schools and 13 of 19 elementary schools. A 14th elementary school has opted for performing arts without visual arts classes.

''To commit the resources we do to fine arts, we have to step on some toes elsewhere," said Clancy. ''That's not easy. But the fine arts program is something the city and the School Department are very proud of."

It appears that Clancy is, well, preaching to the choir.

''It would be really weird not to play an instrument every day," said Deborah Santos, 16, a Lynn English junior and band member.

''I love music and everything about it. It's one of the most enjoyable parts of my life."

NorthTalk

What impact has the No Child Left Behind law had on schools in your community? Have music, arts and other courses been eliminated to focus more closely on the core subjects? Is that a change you agree with? Log on to www.boston.com/northtalk, or write to us at globenorth@ globe.com, or Globe North, 1 Corporate Place, 55 Ferncroft Road, Danvers, MA 01923.