St. Charles North music boosters fear proposed cuts

Proposed budget cuts in St. Charles Unit District 303 are hitting a sour note with some parents who fear the foundation for the district's music programs may be undercut.

A booster club of as many as 450 parents at St. Charles North High School called SCN Friends of Music, recently sent a letter expressing concerns about the cuts to district staff, school board members and local newspapers.

Club President Robin Fleming said her group of about 150 active members understands cuts must be made to balance the district's budget. They just think the cuts in the music program may be in the wrong area. The district's proposal would eliminate the individual instruction time music students at the middle schools receive on their instrument of choice. To compensate, band/orchestra will now receive a full class period of instruction rather than the current 28-minute period.

Fleming said removing the individual instruction will jeopardize the quality of a student's music education, particularly a causal music lover, and threaten the overall performance level of the district's band and orchestras.

"The music program has the highest parent satisfaction level in the district," Fleming said. "That tells us that it's working. We want them to consider cutting something else."

That "something else" are the district's 21 instructional support coaches. Those coaches work like mentors for the district's teachers to help them become better at instruction and overcome any teaching difficulties in the classrooms. However, the coaches themselves don't teach students.

"Our question is why are we taking away the teacher that's in front of the student, which impacts the student daily?" Fleming said. "If the results are good, why is that the area that we chose to cut?"

District Spokesman Jim Blaney said the proposed cuts were made with the idea of balancing out the pain between athletics and the arts while leaving academics as intact as possible. Just as support for sports clubs with low participation will go, so will the individual music instruction. That way, portions of each program remains without either becoming extinct. The instructional support coaches aren't eliminated because district officials believe those coaches help make all the district's teachers the best they can be, Blaney said. And yet, something must be cut to balance the budget.

"As (Superintendent) Don Schlomann said, there are no good solutions here," Blaney said. "There are only solutions that are less bad than others. Music instruction will still be a big part of the instruction for middle school students. And we understand the community wants academics, the arts and athletics to be part of the overall education experience. All of them are important, but academics has more importance."

The school board will discuss the cuts at 7 tonight at Thompson Middle School.