MCPS Cutting Music Programs

[Anonymous]

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2019/05/parents-students-criticize-montgomery-co-music-cuts/

Have they considered cutting waste in the Admin offices? I also "love" how they want to cut music while continually sending home flyers about group music classes we can pay for. Absurd.

[Anonymous]

Again!?!

Along with its national minimum of ES gym class of 30 mins and its rotating art teachers.

Back to catholic school- 7-8 subjects or specials a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2019/05/parents-students-criticize-montgomery-co-music-cuts/

Have they considered cutting waste in the Admin offices? I also "love" how they want to cut music while continually sending home flyers about group music classes we can pay for. Absurd.

Music class is racist and discriminatory. Many don’t have money to rent the instrument as they are remitting all their cash back to the Homeland.

[Anonymous]

oh FFS. every time we think MCPS might be improving something--like instituting an actual curriculum for math and ELA--they pull crap like this.

[Anonymous]

They HAVE cut people out of central office, OP. Some people that in my opinion were necessary!

The problem is the following: MCPS does not hold the purse-strings. Montgomery County Council does. MCPS has overcrowding issues, because a ton of people are moving into Montgomery County for the schools, jobs, etc. They end of in MCPS, and therefore there is a budget problem, because the Council has a hard time approving budget increases every year.

I am a music-lover.

Despite this, I understand that there are priorities that supercede elective programs. Some schools ahve no functioning A/C. Some schools have leaky roofs. Many schools are so overcrowded as to be unsafe (especially high schools) and building a new high schools costs several million dollars, quite literally, that MCPS has to pry from the County Council.

My point is that this is not easy. You can complain and whine, but in the end, all you're doing is taking money from one essential post to another you think is equally or more essential. There isn't enough money to go around.

[Anonymous]

Provide free condom at four high schools,
cut music program.
Obviously, condom is much cheaper than music program. Maybe poor kids who have no money for music enrichment class can use condoms to kill some time.

[Anonymous]

Didn't the other post say it was cut because of low partipcation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't the other post say it was cut because of low partipcation?

pure speculation. no one has provided any actual evidence for that.

[Anonymous]

The schools that are seeing the cuts are some of the "smaller" (by MCPS current standards) high schools in the County. So they may not have as many participants as the larger HSs in the County.

It can be a self-fulfilling prophecy - if you don't give the allocation, or you are always tweaking and reducing/increasing it, you will see a lot of turnover as the people who get hired for a full time position want a full time position and leave when it is tweaked downward. Then you have no stability in the program and every year is the teacher's first at that school and you get low participation. In one of the articles it said the teacher whose position was reduced had really grown participation in the classes, but will those kids stick with it under a new unknown teacher? Some of it is about building a good program over the course of years, which can't be done if the position is reduced each spring even if it is "given back" during the summer.

[Anonymous]

Where/when do we find out if our kid's school is affected? Is this for middle and elementary or just high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where/when do we find out if our kid's school is affected? Is this for middle and elementary or just high school?

Our elementary school music teacher got hours cut. Its not just high school but I don't get it as she's at multiple school and teaches a lot of kids (beyond being one of the best teachers at the school).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't the other post say it was cut because of low partipcation?

pure speculation. no one has provided any actual evidence for that.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/plans-to-reduce-music-teachers-strike-a-sour-note/

“After parents and students at Springbrook High School flocked to a school board meeting last month to appeal a decision to trim one of the Silver Spring school’s two full-time teaching positions to part-time, advocates for Northwood and Rockville high schools turned out at a meeting Monday night to do the same.

“Next year, Northwood is slated to have a half-time band teacher. We are told it is due to fewer students signing up for band classes, but l think it is indicative of a pattern we see at several other predominantly low income schools in Montgomery County,” said Northwood High School Cluster Coordinator Michelle Moller. “We are slowly being stripped of our arts programming, and it needs to stop.”

According to this article, the cut occured after enrollment dropped. If the schools want to save the full time music teacher position, they have to encorgae more students to sogn up the music classes.
Students can rent instrument from school for $40-50 per year, or $80-100 if the student wants to take the instrument home to pracrice after school. Low income student ps may get a waver on the fee. Chorus is free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't the other post say it was cut because of low partipcation?

pure speculation. no one has provided any actual evidence for that.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/plans-to-reduce-music-teachers-strike-a-sour-note/

“After parents and students at Springbrook High School flocked to a school board meeting last month to appeal a decision to trim one of the Silver Spring school’s two full-time teaching positions to part-time, advocates for Northwood and Rockville high schools turned out at a meeting Monday night to do the same.

“Next year, Northwood is slated to have a half-time band teacher. We are told it is due to fewer students signing up for band classes, but l think it is indicative of a pattern we see at several other predominantly low income schools in Montgomery County,” said Northwood High School Cluster Coordinator Michelle Moller. “We are slowly being stripped of our arts programming, and it needs to stop.”

According to this article, the cut occured after enrollment dropped. If the schools want to save the full time music teacher position, they have to encorgae more students to sogn up the music classes.
Students can rent instrument from school for $40-50 per year, or $80-100 if the student wants to take the instrument home to pracrice after school. Low income student ps may get a waver on the fee. Chorus is free.

Sign your kid up for music, people!! It's super fun and won't give your kid a concussion like most sports will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't the other post say it was cut because of low partipcation?

pure speculation. no one has provided any actual evidence for that.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/plans-to-reduce-music-teachers-strike-a-sour-note/

“After parents and students at Springbrook High School flocked to a school board meeting last month to appeal a decision to trim one of the Silver Spring school’s two full-time teaching positions to part-time, advocates for Northwood and Rockville high schools turned out at a meeting Monday night to do the same.

“Next year, Northwood is slated to have a half-time band teacher. We are told it is due to fewer students signing up for band classes, but l think it is indicative of a pattern we see at several other predominantly low income schools in Montgomery County,” said Northwood High School Cluster Coordinator Michelle Moller. “We are slowly being stripped of our arts programming, and it needs to stop.”

According to this article, the cut occured after enrollment dropped. If the schools want to save the full time music teacher position, they have to encorgae more students to sogn up the music classes.
Students can rent instrument from school for $40-50 per year, or $80-100 if the student wants to take the instrument home to pracrice after school. Low income student ps may get a waver on the fee. Chorus is free.

I bought an instrument for $120... makes no sense to rent after a year as its cheaper to buy. Some schools have free instruments for those kids who need them.

[Anonymous]

So who do we contact to encourage keeping music in schools? MCPS? County council? Both?