FARMINGTON – It was standing room only in the Mt. Blue Middle School cafeteria Thursday evening, as the school board took public comment on a series of proposed reductions to the district’s music department budget.
A budget committee of four directors and the administration have presented a budget which would cut a general music position at the middle school, half of a strings position at the elementary school level and $27,000 out of music-related supply lines.
More than 100 people attended the second evening of public comment on the proposed 2010-2011 budget, which includes $1.5 million in cuts to partially cover a massive loss of state subsidy. The 6.5 percent reduction of the entire Mt. Blue Regional School District budget would still result in a 2 percent increase in local appropriations, or $184,000 in local assessments.
Music Department Director Carol Shumway and others addressed the board in regards to the cuts, which would effectively end the general music program at the middle school, start the Strings program at 4th grade rather than 3rd and dramatically slash the department’s budget for repairs, supplies and event dues.
“The proposed loss at Mt. Blue Middle School is devastating,” Shumway said, noting that the middle school was the last chance for students to take general music.
“Once they quit out at the middle school,” she noted, “we don’t get them back.”
Music teachers James Perkins, who has submitted a letter of retirement dependent upon the budget decision, and Lindsay Reinstein both spoke to the importance of music in helping students develop; artistically, creatively and scholastically.
Cutting the general music teaching position represents $59,000 of the budget’s overall reduction. That cut would not directly impact band, orchestra and chorus, which students can option to participate in.
Steve Muise, long-time strings teacher, made an emotional plea to retain the program for all four of the latter years of elementary school. He drew parallels between the ongoing process and the difficult budget periods from 1992 through 1995, when he was just starting out in the program as a “green kid who knew how to play the fiddle.”
“The roots of quality music education run deep in these parts,” he told the board. Muise and others said they were concerned that pushing strings back would, in turn, push back the orchestra program.
General music would continue to be taught at third grade, if strings was pushed back to 4th grade.
Those in the audience applauded following each statement, rising for a standing ovation after the music department had finished making its case.
The reductions would also call for $27,000 in reductions to music-related supply lines, along with large-scale reductions to other supply budgets. The break down of the $27,000 reduction is as follows: $3,480 for repair of music equipment, $16,870 for music general supplies, $1,000 for music technology supplies, $5,650 for music dues and fees.
Shumway said the cuts would greatly diminish the music department’s ability to educate students, with less money available to repair equipment and less money to send student groups to contests and events. She noted that 42 percent of students in the district, grades 4 through 12, were involved in chorus, band or orchestra and that the department “had already taken enough cuts.”
“The reductions have put tremendous pressure on us to maintain the services we want to maintain,” Board Chair Raymond Glass noted at the beginning of the evening. “This is not easy.”
Director Mark Prentiss, of Industry, asked Shumway and other music department personnel to consider trying to find innovative ways to combine programs and think outside the box. Prentiss cited Barry Maguire, a technology integrator, as an example. Maguire arrived at Tuesday’s meeting with an alternative proposal to the budget’s lack of tech integration support at the elementary level, namely drawing money from a professional development line to arrange for stipend-funded support.
Having moved quickly through the remaining handful of budgetary items, mostly transportation-related, the board will begin deliberations Tuesday, meeting at 6 p.m. in the cafeteria.
It seems that once they start cutting, they don’t stop. At first, health was taken to 1/2, and now to be totally eliminated. At first, Elementary French was reduced to only those who had already started, and now All Elementary Foreign Language is to be eliminated. The first step is take out a little (1 year of Elementary strings, General Music at MBMS) and then to take out more. Once they have taken out the feeder programs that makes a program great, then the entire program loses it’s luster, is no longer valued by the district, and all together cut. While they could not cut one of these programs in one whack without a huge uproar, they can take it apart piece by piece, little by little, hiding behind the budget demands.
As for bringing an outside the box option, I only hope that they will listen. Last time I brought that sort of proposal to the board, the Administration did what they were going to do anyway, regardless of the savings, and still reduced teachers. What upper administrators are being removed? Which one of these folks is taking furlough days, pay cuts, wage freezes, or taking on a teaching assignment? I didn’t hear that any one of their jobs is being reduced in these hard economic times.
I know, everyone says “Not in my backyard,” but are we in the business of educating or the business of managing. Why take the teachers out of the rooms and the tools out of the remaining teacher’s hands, when this is what a school system’s purpose is: Educate Children.
The Board asking teachers to “think of ways to free up money” or to “find innovative ways to combine programs and think outside the box” is all good and fine. Indeed, they do this every day out of necessity. However, I’ll go a bit further at the risk of stepping on some toes here.
I’d suggest that the Board revisit their decision to have back-filled the Superintendent’s position when Dr. Cormier retired last year. Let’s all be honest with ourselves and ask whether we really need all this top level management with six figure incomes? I’m not intending to pick on Dr. Cormier, whom I do respect. Rather, isn’t it really the front line employees (i.e., the teachers, coaches, grounds-keepers, drivers, and cafeteria staff) that make our schools run?
Hollowing out the music program will take away one of the few things that truly sets the Farmington area school system apart. That is not the answer.
Why is it that the arts always seem to receive the most draconian cuts in budget vis a vis sports programs? Don’t school boards and others recognize the lifetime benefit that music has for students and adults. I started playing an instrument at 10 years old, and continued thru my freshman year in college. After a 30 plus year hiatus, I resumed playing and still play. How many football, soccor, and basketball players are still playing at age 68?
I understand MBHS used to have a marching band. How much nicer our local parades would be with a sharp marching band. Or have 50 or more students get the opportunity to compete in competitions with other bands across the state.
Can we get some coverage in the SAD58 School Board Meetings too? I have another commitment on Thursday evenings, otherwise I would be there. I do not get to hear anything until Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week when it is considered “old news”.
A Concert in Nordica
for all the music-makers, young and old,
in Western Maine
The woman who crouches lovingly
against the wingbone of her harp,
the leglocked cellos
gyroscoping on their pivots
in the fluttery happiness of fame,
the sounds themselves, all, all
body forth their parts
when the conductor’s hands
leapfrog toward one Pythagorean length.
Blessed art!
As in a Giotto
a room’s forms
are made to listen to gold’s
deepest dialogue with light, so
here. Here is the room of restoration
for those who walk away from lost causes
clenching empty hands in their pockets,
for those contorted by a daily round.
As long
as movements sound
their good speed.
After having been laid off 2 years ago at the beginning of the recession and taking a job (when I finally found one) at 60% of my former pay, I just have one question. Given that many times I had to make a decision whether to have heat or food this last winter, where does RSD 9 think I’m going to come up 2 or 4% more for my property taxes. Wilton will most likely go up an additional 2 to 4%. My boss is not going to give me a 8% raise – which means I’ll continue to fall behind, so that other people can live better.
Personally, I’d like to see all the kids get art and music from the best teachers we can find, but in the absence of enough resources, parents have to stop expecting society to pay for every little program they think their little “Dylan” or “Stephanie” needs. They need to step up to the plate here and hire a private music teacher if it’s that important to them and their children. HAVING CHILDREN IS NOT A RIGHT, IT’S A RESPONSIBILITY. And it’s up to parents to be responsible and provide for their children instead of shifting that burden onto their neighbors.
I have one question though. The info I got from RSD9 in their last budget said that 1 in 3 children entering the district was being classified as “special needs.” Isn’t that extremely high? And since the district spends somewhere around $33,000 per special needs students, and about $5,500 per regular student, I have to wonder, who is really getting shortchanged here? And by whom?
Mike I am sorry for you misfortune. You are in a position like many who have suffered in the economy. You have been fortunate in finding another job where others have not. It sounds like you have had to make some tough decisions like many of your neighbors.
You should know that it isn’t the school district that raises your taxes, rather it is various formulas used by the towns, states and federal goverment (depending on the type of tax). Your upset with the increase in property taxes needs to be taken up with your local officials not MBRSD. It seems your anger is misplaced with the school district. Contact your local, state and federal elected officials to voice your opinion. School districts can benefit from the funds collected through property taxes true, but it is not the school district themselves that set the tax rate.
Mike makes some valid points. Maybe it’s time for parents to get more involved with their children when they are not in school. Why can’t families themselves provide some of these “enrichment” programs that they believe are so important? Study a new language. Learn to play the guitar. Build a tree house. Plant a garden. Paint a sunset. Go to the library. Learn together! You might just be surprised at how much fun it can be!
While I understand the feelings of local residents who are feeling the strain of these economic times, I don’t agree that we should be so quick to call for “enrichment” activities (such as art, music, foreign languages, sports, etc…) to take place outside of school. Public education, as one of the great geniuses of our society, is supposed to be an equalizer – an institution where each child receives the opportunities as his peers, regardless of social or economic class.
To our community’s great credit, our school system provides the opportunity for each and every student to participate in music, art, foreign languages, and athletics at high levels. To suggest that individual parents pay for these activities for their children and not “burden their neighbors” is to promote a society in which only those children from families with economic means deserve the opportunity to play an instrument, or learn a foreign language, or study art, or play a sport. THAT is not a society in which I care to live – it is not the America that I know and love.
As a homeowner in Farmington, I am more than willing to endure a small increase in my property taxes, knowing that half of those tax dollars are going to a school district that still believes that every child can and will be successful, and one that values the “enrichment” of every child.
SAD 9 spends less per pupil than 70% of school districts in the state.
SAD 9’s proposed budget this year is DECREASED by approximately 6.5% from last year. The reason why towns are being asked to pick up an increase of 2% is that the state cut funding to our local schools by 11%.
See the district budget letter for details:
http://www.mtbluersd.org/attachments/124_BudgetLetter.pdf
Having been blessed with being a Marching Band student, I can tell you honestly that my experiences during those times in my life not just enriched it at that time, but made significant contributions to who I am today. I learned teamwork, leadership skills, self confidence and the value of giving 110% to whatever I was doing. My heart broke in two the day they took away the marching band. We were State champs in my time there, working together every day toward that goal. Music isn’t just notes and instruments. Music is teaching our kids about life. On just a bit of a lighter note, (and if you were there you’ll know….) Its also about teaching them to TWIST AND SHOUT your way through it all!