We have encountered several fictions being shared among school and district administrators.
We have encountered several fictions being shared among school and district administrators.
What we are being told
What is actually the case
There have not been any staffing cuts to the music program at South for next year.
The Music Department was told last year by the Asst. Superintendent that the reduction from 2.35 FTE to 2.0 FTE in 2021-22 was temporary and only for this year. Therefore the failure to restore the 0.35 FTE in 2022-21 as promised amounts to a cut.
Staffing and classes offered at NNHS and NSHS are based on actual enrollments in courses. Some classes are not offered when enrollments are low.
This year, NNHS ran ACP Music Theory with 12 students enrolled and Music of the Beatles with 5. Clearly these enrollments were not too low.
If one instrumental music course is cut, there are other courses to take.
Music performance classes are not interchangeable because they are leveled and differ by genre, size and the repertoire covered.
There are already enough performance classes.
The NSHS music program had a large number of students enrolled in 2021-22 (234 compared with 180 at NNHS to be exact). This is enough to sustain a range of performance groups. Leveled groups support students of different proficiencies. More sections help distribute pianists, drummers and bassists so they don’t have to rotate and miss on-task instruction time.
Students don’t need to take multiple performance classes at once.
Exposure to multiple genres and style periods is essential to a complete music education.
There was a decision to offer either AP Music Theory or Jazz Combo, and the Music Department was included in this decision and is being advocated for.
The Music Department was not consulted about which course to cut.
Younger children aren’t interested in music–and that is the real issue.
If Newton is serious about addressing this issue, then it needs to address it at the primary and middle school level, not dismantle it at the top.
Eliminating a class that meets after school is important for equity.
Allowing an award-winning public school music program to fail may not affect families who can afford private music school, but it harms those who can’t. Newton Public Schools must do better than this.
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