Save NSHS's Award Winning Music Program

Save South Music is a group of parents, students and alumni fighting against harmful and arbitrary cuts to the Newton South High School Music Program.

Why we're doing this.

The Newton South Music Department is an award-winning, nationally recognized program built from the ground up over the last 20 years by Ms. Lisa Linda and Mr. Ben Youngman. Unfortunately, budget cuts at South have placed the program in jeopardy.

Music graduates have gone on to Berklee (or similar) to enjoy successful careers in music. Even those who don’t aspire to be professional musicians enjoy the invaluable benefits of a strong music program. Ms. Linde truly believes in the transformative effect of music education and built this program from the ground up over 20+ years. She makes the band room a welcoming place for students of all backgrounds, skills and abilities. With her characteristic can-do attitude, Ms. Linde kept the Jazz program going during the pandemic, through freezing rehearsals and masked performances in the school parking lot. Our music programs continue to be a lifeline for students as they return to “normal” in 2022 and beyond.

Unfortunately, budget cuts at South, have placed the Music Program as we know it in jeopardy.

Both Newton North and Newton South have traditionally been allocated 2.7 FTEs in their Music Departments. This is despite the fact that enrollment in South’s Music Department has been larger than North’s for almost a decade. Incomprehensibly, the Music Department at South was reduced to 2.0 FTEs at the end of the 2020-21 school year. We were told it would be for one year only.

This leaves Ms. Linde to run the entire Jazz and Woodwind programs single handedly. This has meant fewer rehearsals, larger classes, students running rehearsals themselves, and schedule cuts.

Program cuts for 2022-23.

Our Music Department is chronically understaffed at just 2.0 full-time equivalents (FTE). Jazz Combo, our premier improv group, and Chamber Ensemble, with 28 students already enrolled, are slated to be cut next year.

Meanwhile the music program at Newton North High School, with lower enrollment, will keep its 2.7 FTE. It seems that NNHS, unlike South, honors their stated policy of not cutting programming even when enrollment fluctuates. This inequity between Newton South and Newton North is completely unacceptable.

The result is that Ms. Linde and her co-director, Mr. Youngman, have had to scramble to fulfill enrollment requests and run the full complement of Music Department courses. Something has to give. For 2021-22, Jazz Improv classes were consolidated from 4 levels into larger mixed-level classes, a suboptimal situation for students who have to sit out while others play. Chamber Ensemble may get the axe.

Music may be easy to cut, but it takes years for a program like ours to recover.

We are urging the Newton School Committee and Administrators, for all the reasons that music benefits our students and our community, to reallocate funds and restore equity to the Newton South Music Department by returning it to 2.7 FTEs.

"The Newton South Jazz program was one of the best educational experiences I had at Newton South. Many of my peers went on to be professional musicians from the program, and I do not know of one student whose life was not changed for the better through Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Improv Classes, or the Combo."

-- Samuel M, a NSHS Alumnus

"Music is really my Wellness. "

-- Diego M, NSHS '24, string bass

How you can help.

Newton South students deserve a robust Music program that is supported at all levels and not constantly under threat. Your emails of support to the Newton School Committee, City Council and the Mayor will have a big impact. So will signing our Petition. It only takes a few minutes.

On May 23, the City Council passed a resolution asking the Mayor to allocate 1.4 million dollars of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to the School Committe budget, funds which would be earmarked for the Schools and could support many needs, including South's music program. However the release of these funds, and the priorities of the School Committee, are not yet clear. Therefore your letters of support are very important.

Email the School Committee (schoolcommittee@newton.k12.ma.us) and demand proper budget allocation for the NSHS music program.

Email the Mayor and ask her in the strongest possible terms to use ARPA money to restore $1.4 million to the school budget.

Please sign our petition.

Finally, please bookmark our website and return often for updates.

Next step:

Please write an email to the School Committee (schoolcommittee@newton.k12.ma.us) , the Mayor (rfuller@newtonma.gov) and the City Council (citycouncil@newtonma.gov) supporting the resolution to use ARPA funds for the school budget, and remind them that the music program at NSHS is in jeopardy and needs their support. CC the school committee, the superintendent and our NSHS principal.

"If there's any program in the Newton Public Schools that's emblematic of what [we're] trying to achieve, it's got to be the Jazz Combo. We've got a multiracial student body. We have a curriculum embedded in black musical history. We have an instructor committed to pursuing the role of women and LGBTQ people in the music business. And we see it in jeopardy. And it seems to me it's when the tough decisions are being made that we see how committed we really are to these objectives."

--Paul Levy, Ward 6 School Newton School Committee