* After 3 years of building up a terrific choral program, Dr. Dillon (Chorus teacher) has been involuntarily reassigned to an elementary school.
* The already part-time choral position has been downsized from 3 classes to 2 classes for next year.
* The 6th grade chorus -- which took 2 years to implement, and which just had a successful first year -- has been cut for next year.
* The remaining classes of General Chorus and 6th Grade General Music Rotation (a class every quarter) have not yet been filled by a teacher. At this date the county will most likely place someone in this position since there has not been a teacher chosen by the school. The concern is that if this position is not filled, then the remaining classes could be cut altogether. Also the person placed may or may not be a good fit.
* We will most likely also lose Chamber Singers or After School Chorus. Whoever fills the choral music position will most likely be working at more than one school, so their availability for after school activities (Chamber Singers, Musicals, Talent Show, etc) will be limited.
* Incoming 6th graders from the elementary schools are probably not aware that there will be no chorus waiting for them in the 6th grade like this year. Closing this gap at the middle school is crucial to keeping the vitality and love of singing alive and well into the high school level. [Members of the instrumental and choral music program traveled to a number of feeder elementary schools this spring, to perform for 5th graders and encourage them to sign up for music at SSI for 6th grade.]
Our Treble Choir (a mix of students from the General Chorus, 6th Grade Chorus, and Chamber Singers) took FIRST PLACE at a Nationally recognized competition. A 6th grade choral soloist from Silver Spring International Middle School won the overall Best Vocalist award.
Please help save our Chorus!
Signed,
Concerned Silver Spring International Middle School Parents
Superintendent Jerry Weast hired 12 new administrators this week to work for Pearson Education, Inc's new curriculum project.
ReplyDeleteMusic, and the arts in general, should not be "optional" or "extras." They should be central to a well-rounded education. Enough with the fancy toys (Promethean boards - NOT necessary) and more money poured into sports (artificial turf - NOT necessary). Let's spend money on TEACHERS, and on the ARTS.
ReplyDeleteI am a full-time arts professional who owes my early arts exposure and training to Montgomery County schools. I would like my two daughters to have the same opportunities.
btw, my daughter was the 6th grader who won the "Best Vocalist 2010" award at the recent Music in the Parks competition at Hershey Park. Next year, 6th graders at SSI won't even have a chorus to sing in.
Silver Spring parents, who did you vote for for the Board of Education? Look in the mirror. If you voted for these board members, what did you expect? This is what YOU voted for. I am sympathetic to your plight but as someone who has been treated like dirt by the PTA, to which you all probably belong (and I apologize if that is not so) really, get off the dime and wake up, to mix metaphors. Quit the PTA. Form an organization that works for YOU and not this Board of Ed. Run for office yourselves. So far Pat O'Neill, Judy Docca and Mike Durso, all incumbents that have supported these cuts have filed. I don't see your name there. The deadline to file is July 6. So, help yourselves.
ReplyDelete@DebbieGrossman - stop attacking sports. A lot of folks would argue that sports is just as important as the arts (mind/body connection). I am happy for you that you treasure and defend the arts - just don't tear down sports to do it. Many kids in MOCO benefit from participation in sports. Sports could also use a lot more funding than it gets now.
ReplyDeleteHere's a question - do the arts in MCPS get the equivalent of 3 artificial turf football fields anywhere in MCPS?
ReplyDeleteJust askin'
3 artificial turf football fields equal $3.6 million.
@Anon - I debated replying, but I ask you to re-read my post. I'm not "attacking sports." If I'm attacking anything, it's the lack of priorities in spending. I could have included "Steinway pianos for all music classrooms - NOT necessary." Start by funding the basic programs, offering a full range of classes, and hiring enough teachers. That includes so-called core classes, as well as sports, music, drama, art. All students should be required to take classes in all of these areas; that's a complete education.
ReplyDeleteArt, music, drama, sports, foreign languages (Latin! Latin! please!): we really could and should have it all if our current BOE would stop doing things like wasting money on the latest technology fads and plastic grass. (and now the "practice field" at Richard Montgomery HS has turned into a weed-filled sand pit, another example of what was once a perfectly good resource WASTED by MCPS.)
ReplyDelete@Anonymous#2 - Unfortunately you can't play football or soccer or lacrosse indoors. You are comparing apples and oranges. These fields actually SAVE Montgomery County money over time in terms of decreased maintenance, all-weather and multiple uses over the course of their useful life. The savings will come in future years after the cost is recovered.
ReplyDelete@DebbieGrossman - your "priorities" aren't necessarily the same as the priorities of others. No you are not attacking sports directly only indirectly by suggesting it is not the same priority as the arts. That's up for debate.
That said, all students should not be required to take classes in sports, music, drama, art, etc. at least at the middle school/high school level. Those who want to take those subjects should have an opportunity to do so. The idea of a one size fits all education according to your specific priorities is nonsense and certainly not feasible in today's economic environment.
Anon said: "These fields actually SAVE Montgomery County money over time in terms of decreased maintenance, all-weather and multiple uses over the course of their useful life. The savings will come in future years after the cost is recovered."
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely 100% FALSE. Cost data does NOT support that statement.
MCPS could spend $50,000 on every high school football field, every year for the next 25 years and still not exceed the cost of an artificial turf field installation, maintenance, repair and replacement.
@ Janis Sartucci - Not 100% false. Please provide the cost data for each school's maintenance of all athletic fields - practice as well since those fields would not need to be maintained as much (it is more than $50k at a lot of schools). Also, please provide the insurance costs of field turf v other fields. Also, you have failed to account for the fact that these facilities can be used more often (less wear and tear) allowing the County to recoup revenues by renting them out. Right now, they are largely unuseable for 6-8 months of the year.
ReplyDelete@janis sartucci - that's why so many public and private facilities are switching to filed turf - because it will be more costly (sarcasm)
ReplyDelete@still anonymous -
ReplyDeleteWe have! You need to catch up on your reading.
MCPS spends $1.2 million per artificial turf field.
They currently spend zero to maintain their grass fields.
IF MCPS took the $1.2 million and put it into their grass fields EVERY high school would have a beautiful football field, every year.
Artificial turf fields have to be replaced in about 7 to 10 years. The fields that MCPS is putting in will barely be paid for when they have to be replaced.
Again, do some reading.
Include in the cash that MCPS Consultant Joe Lavorgna says the booster Clubs have to contribute to maintain the artificial turf fields. Although, the RM Booster Club said NO to that!
This post is supposed to be about saving a music program. It's not about music vs. sports.
ReplyDeleteMy POINT is that our school board does not seem to be doing a good job of balancing the needs of ALL of our school programs. We need to start with classes -- not after school programs -- and look at their needs. That means adequate funding and staffing for ALL classes, including gym, music, art, foreign languages, shop, etc.
Yes, I was a student musician. But I was also a student athlete, I played on school teams, I support after school sports. That doesn't mean I support potentially unnecessary and extremely expensive expenditures, such as artificial turf.
No, you can't play certain sports inside. But somehow generations of students have managed to play them just fine on grass. If it's finally determined that artificial turf is truly better, and more cost-effective in the long run, AND there is surplus money available, then fine, go for it. But not now, when classes are being cut and teachers are losing their jobs.
This is comical. You expect us to believe that it costs nothing to maintain grass fields. HA HA The grass cuts itself! No pesticides, fertilizer or water is needed! WHAT A GREAT COUNTY WE LIVE IN!
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you check with the Booster Clubs to see how much they spend per year. Churchill used to spend in maintenance in excess of $60,000/year as but one example.
Churchill PARENTS spend $60,000 on the athletic fields.
ReplyDeleteNOT MCPS.
MCPS does not maintain football fields. They don't maintain grass ones and they don't maintain artificial turf ones.
$1.2 million for an artificial turf field represents an outrageous upfront cost for one school's field that will not be maintained while the other two dozen high school fields turn to dust.
$1.2 million on a field to be used by private companies, instead of studentsis a misdirection of Operating funds that are appropriated for the free public education of Montgomery County children.
Cutting curriculum - such as music and arts - while forming private "deals" with private companies is not the mission of the Superintendent. The Superintendent is actually tasked by law with giving his full time and attention to the running of the county public school system set up to provide a free education to our county students.
Yes the parents fork over the maintenance fees but what if they can't or won't? You have dangerous playing surfaces. One of my kids got a glass shard (from a broken bottle) in his leg while playing football on a MCPS field and he is the tip of the iceberg of injuries suffered due to poorly maintained MCPS fields.
ReplyDeleteMCPS should be paying for these fields not Booster Clubs - they are MCPS property. Imagine if they decided not to maintain the parking lots or sidewalks? So all we are talking about is that there is a transfer of cost to the parents not the non-existence of any cost which you are using to make it seems as if these fields are not cost effective. And if MCPS had any brains they would install these fields everywhere like other counties have done. The unit cost per field would drop precipitously. If you buy them one at a time it is much more expensive. You can get them for way cheaper than 1.2 million.
But all that begs the issue. Why should Churchill parents have to pay for athletics but the arts and music should be free? It seems to me that we pay for both or we pay for neither. Neither has a higher moral or educational standing. And the costs for athletics are much higher given the facilities needed. That's just the way it is.
But the thing that surprises me most about your last response is that you think there is a "free" education. Did you ever ask where your property and income taxes go?
@ anonymous 1:07
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that MCPS is paying top dollar for artificial turf fields. Other school systems get them for half of what MCPS pays.
Art and music are part of the curricular program that is the responsibility of the public school system to provide to students for free.
In Maryland, sports are extra-curricular and our Constitution does not guarantee that those activities will be provided to county students for free. It's apples and oranges, as they say.
The laws are different on this issue in other states, but in Maryland curricular = free, extra-curricular = not free.
If you disagree with the current state law, please lobby your State representatives to change it. But at present, that is where Maryland stands.
We are very clear that we all pay property taxes to support the school system. However, in Montgomery County the current Superintendent has been charging students to attend classes in violation of their right to free access to a public education.
At present, curricular offerings (like Chorus) are being cut to fund the purchase of products for private companies.
There is a cost to the decisions being made by the Superintendent and the Board of Education. At SSIMS, the cost is Chorus.
@Anon said "Why should Churchill parents have to pay for athletics but the arts and music should be free? It seems to me that we pay for both or we pay for neither. Neither has a higher moral or educational standing.
ReplyDeleteExactly, pay for the CLASSES for both. Chorus is a class. Band is a class. Art is a class. Foreign languages are classes. Gym classes are part of the curriculum, and plenty of decidedly non-athletic students are _required_ to take gym class. Perhaps gym class should be made an "elective" also. Or provide alternatives to the traditional team-sports focus of gym class: dance, martial arts, yoga. [Dance is offered as an elective at SSIMS, but not in place of gym. My daughter said she got far more of a workout in her dance class than she usually did in gym class.]
Sports teams, while extremely valuable (and I'm not arguing against them) are EXTRA-curricular. Students are not _required_ to participate in any extracurricular activities.
@Anon also said "And the costs for athletics are much higher given the facilities needed."
Perhaps you haven't noticed the wonderful old Blair Auditorium on Wayne, sitting empty now for over 10 years because the money can't be found to make it usable again. Do you have any idea how much it costs to operate an auditorium? Have you priced musical instruments lately? Do you know what it costs -- in terms of fees, royalties, production expenses -- to put on a play or a musical?
Parents, or parent booster clubs, tend to raise money for things like band uniforms, music purchases, transportation for trips to perform or compete. It can run a middle-school chorus $1,000 for the year to hire an accompanist for concerts. So while the classes may be part of the curriculum, parents are footing the bill for the EXTRAcurricular parts (and even some of the curricular ones).
This blog ran a series of posts on the dangers of artificial turf (AT). Here are a few:
ReplyDelete-The turf creates a heat island that can be seen from space (photo by NASA). Here in MoCo turf field temps were measured at 167 degrees.
-The material in the FieldTurfTarkett material is ground up used rubber tires, both car and truck (and yes there is a difference). Google 'what are used tires made of' and you can find out what is in those tiny rubber black crumbs that are all over your child, your child's shoes and clothes, and your living room carpeting. Carcinogens; heavy metals; lead, to name a few.
-The AT industry hired lobbyists to lobby (successfully) the Consumer Product Safety Commission to exclude AT from lead testing which all children's products must undergo... which is why you won't hear about the lead levels in the AT.
-The AT is manufactured in Calhoun GA in what once was a carpet manufacturing plant. Meanwhile, our storied ag reserve sod farmers are also wondering why MCPS (which is not a county agency, mind you, so not concerned with the county itself) dissed them and their livelihoods. No answer there. I could go on but I strongly suggest you read some of the posts on this blog. Type 'artificial turf' in the search box. Then please repost and let us know what you think about artificial turf.
oh, and next November, Silver Spring parents, don't vote for this Board of Education. Better yet, run yourself!
ReplyDeleteThere's a study that shows that middle school students who study music, do better in algebra
ReplyDeletehttp://www.miller-mccune.com/education/middle-school-music-lessons-enhance-algebra-skills-17009/