Plan C it is for music program in Dist. 204

With Superintendent Kathryn Birkett holding the proverbial gun to their heads, Indian Prairie board members late Monday approved a last-ditch effort to salvage about 90 percent of the district's music program.

By a vote of 5-2, board members ushered in Plan C, the second plan presented since the district announced March 22 it would eliminate the music technique program at the middle school level.

Birkett pushed for a resolution to the plan introduced two weeks ago, saying staffing levels remained one of the lone outstanding issues of the district's $21.4 million austerity program. And Plan C reduces the number of teachers released from 19 in the initial proposal to 9. Of those 10 additional teachers, two would be specifically assigned to the elementary music program and eight would work where they were needed in the district's music program.

"At this point, school will be out before you have another board meeting and if we're going to bring any staff back, we have to ba able to bring those people back before the end of the school year," she said.

Otherwise, the district could find itself in a position of paying unemployment benefits to a teacher only to hire them right back.

Plan C also reinstates the middle school technique program to about 80-90 percent of its current instruction; reinstates the fifth-grade instrumental music program that had been restricted in a previous plan and charges a $108 fee annually for each sixth- through 12th-grade instrumental music students.

Several board members, including Cathy Piehl and Alka Tyle who voted against the plan, listed the fee as a primary roadblock despite the administration's promise that no child would be turned away from participating if their families couldn't afford the fee.

"That's a huge detriment," Piehl said. "There are going to be families who can't afford it but would never ask for money and the child is left out."

Mark Metzger agreed, calling the fee abysmal, among other things but also the difference between a thriving music program and no music program.

"It's (the fee) way too high but I don't know what else to do," he said. "If the state funding comes back, I don't have the slightest problem getting rid of that fee. The fee is wrong, but what it's doing is giving those parents the same opportunity as the athletic parents and everybody else, which is the chance to let their kid participate out of their own pocket."

Dawn DeSart agreed the plan has holes but she felt compelled to approve it based on the work and determination of administration and the music staff members.

"Plan C is not perfect but it's the best we can do with the collaboration of the administration and the music leaders in this district," DeSart said.

With the staffing head count set, after the plan's approval, Birkett said staff members will continue to work out kinks in the plan.