Oregonian Article

Our group was directly mentioned in this article:

“Beaverton Friends of Music vowed to be at every board meeting this school year to push for music to be fully reinstated across the district.”

The Purpose of K-12 Education

Education fulfills our social obligation, as a people, to transfer the wealth of human knowledge to all our children. The goal of our public system is to allow every child to develop his/her talent, and bring each one of them into full membership in our economic, cultural, and social national community. This includes music, the arts, sports, physical and mental play, communication and expression. We prepare children to become active contributors to our culture and full participants in our democratic institutions.

We have PUBLIC schools to create a common space where children of all races, creeds and income levels gather to learn together. Our goal is not only to educate the individual, but also to build our ability to understand each other.

When I think of my own students in Oakland, my goal was not just to teach them the facts of science. I wanted to give them power in relationship to the world they encounter. I wanted them to be able to ask their own questions, and use the tools of science to investigate the world. Our disciplines of science, language arts, social studies, art and math are not just bodies of knowledge to be memorized. They are ways of interrogating and changing reality. History is an inquiry into the past that helps us understand our present and change our future. Language arts allows us to understand the writings of others, but also to express our own ideas in powerful ways.

Our students are growing up in a confusing world, where so many decisions have been made for them. The world is changing so fast, they need the most versatile set of tools possible. That means they need to be able to think for themselves, and do so with critical minds. The world MUST change because many of the ways we behave are not sustainable. Our students must be prepared not only to react and cope, but also to guide this transformation.

In the classroom this means teachers need the autonomy to figure out the best ways to get their students excited and engaged in their community and the world in which they live. They should be doing projects in which they tackle open-ended problems. They should be interacting with adults in their communities, with local businesses and academic institutions. The school should be a hub of community activity, and the students should be a source for solutions to community problems.

This is a special post to the musicians who are in High School Marching Bands in Beaverton, and to parents of musicians:

Are you frustrated that you won’t be able to make your opinion known at the School Board meeting on Monday night about the cuts and confusion that have surrounded Marching Band this month? You can be present at the meeting through this petition–we will take the signatures and comments of everyone who ‘likes’ and if you desire, comment on, this letter to the School Board directly. One great aspect of this letter is that even though you’ll have to miss the meeting, all Marching Band musicians across the District can come together and speak as one. Of course, please feel free to add anything you want in your comment. We want everyone’s voices to be heard, especially those of the students, who are the most crucial stakeholders of all.

If you are a Marching Band parent, you are also most welcome to sign and comment. Please indicate that you’re a parent in your reply.

So please sign onto this, add anything you want to make sure gets said and **pass this to all the band members you can**! Feel free to sign on behalf of any band members you know who don’t happen to have facebook, but who have read the letter and want to join in.

EVEN if you CAN make the meeting, for instance if your Band Camp is over in time to get to the meeting at 6:30, you can still sign the petition to show solidarity and then come in person as well–that would be great!

Here it is:

To the School Board and Superintendent Rose:

We are student musicians in Beaverton high school marching bands. Our lives were thrown into turmoil this past summer by the badly-managed cuts in music at our high schools. Thankfully, we are now at marching band camp, as the bands were allowed to continue, although with many fewer members. Some schools rehired laid-off teachers and some hired outside contractors, rather than keeping our beloved, experienced teachers/Band Directors. While we’re thankful for marching band season, hiring contractors at the last minute is no way to run a music program that will retain its award-winning record, and it reminds us all over again how precious our music programs and teachers are.

Although we can’t attend the School Board meeting on Monday, we want the Board and Supt. Rose to know we will be there in spirit. As students, we know that music is *a core academic subject* and we want our music classes and groups brought back fully as soon as possible. Why? Because no single activity in school is stronger than music education; nothing grows more aspects of our experience as developing individuals and as community members. Music should be a *top* priority in the school budget at all levels because it is proven, beyond dispute, to build creative, innovative, disciplined leaders in every walk of life.

We want our younger brothers and sisters—and every generation to come—to have the benefits that we have had from music as part of their own Beaverton public school education. We ask you to reverse your destructive choices about music immediately and restore some of the best learning that Beaverton schools have to offer.

* * * *

Hey Beaverton Friends of Music!  Our group was formed in late May, 2012 and we have been working hard all summer.  Now is a good time to look back over the past 14 weeks and appreciate how much we have grown and accomplished in a short period of time, working toward achieving our goal of reinstating music programs as part of the fiscally responsible development of an excellent, comprehensive educational experience for the students in the Beaverton School District.

Here’s just some of what we have been up to so far:

Established and named a permanent music advocacy group in Beaverton; we are perhaps the *only* city-wide education advocacy group in Beaverton

12 weekly planning meetings and counting

2 school board meetings (150+ red shirts at each, 15+ speeches at each) and 1 school board work session (attended by 3 diligent BFoM note-takers)

1 BEA meeting

1 town hall

1 superintendent’s doctoral dissertation reviewed

1 deputy superintendent’s doctoral dissertation reviewed

1 list of music teacher layoffs and transfers, analyzed and posted to BigTent

4 articles published in local newspapers, including a student’s testimony to the board reprinted in the Beaverton Valley Times

4 news interviews aired — KOIN, KPTV, and FOX 12

1 radio interview aired

1400 petition signatures collected in 10 days supporting additional furlough days to save teachers and programs

2800 views on our website

100’s of flyers distributed in both English and Spanish

20+ letters e-mailed to school board including 2 petition letters signed by 20+ members

Established connections with other education advocates and activist groups: Oregon Save our Schools (Oregon SOS), Social Equity Educators (SEE), and Underfunded Parents, Students, and Educators Together (UPSET)

* * * *

Music Cuts Overview
The Beaverton School District is cutting $37M from the 2012-13 school year budget, which will reduce the music programs to critical levels.

Staff Impact
• Reduction of music teachers: 18 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions will be eliminated.
• Remaining staff could be inappropriately placed in positions; i.e. a general elementary music teacher could suddenly be faced with maintaining a high school band or choral program. That individual may have seniority with no experience or desire for the new position.  Moving teachers around like this is against best-practices.  Learning is maximized by having the right teacher in the right position.
• Most positions (including high schools) will be reduced to half time.

Program Impact – Short Term
• Inexperienced overworked instructors placed in new positions.
• Instruction in combined classes that will not allow for growth and maximum potential.
• Most instructors will be required to teach at more than one school – focused attention, after school help/practice, and competitive programs will all be affected.
• Teacher turnover in music impacts the participation of current students who become uncertain and potentially drop the program reducing classes even further.

Program Impact – Long Term
• Reduction of elementary music has been shown to lead to reduced participation at the middle school level, which will eventually lead to the reduction/elimination of participation at the high school level.
• The caliber of music education will significantly if not completely eliminate the ability for students to continue on a career path in the arts. These reductions will not allow students to be adequately prepared to enter competitive universities.
• Student uncertainty can be life-altering. Students who drop the program can not easily rejoin once the situation stabilizes.
• Reducing music programs isn’t cutting them; it is a path to eliminating them.

Resolution
• The BSD cuts to the music program total just over $1M. One additional Budget Reduction Day (aka Unpaid Furlough Day) would save the BSD $1M.
• The BSD needs to preserve current funding for music programs.

Arguments and Talking Points

Music is not an “extra,” it is an essential.
Music is core curriculum K-12.  It covers Fine Arts standards mandated by the State of Oregon.  It should be taught by a full-time specialist at each elementary school, with a full-time instrumental specialist and a full-time choral specialist at each middle and high school.  Music is not an extra-curricular endeavor; it is a discipline, a craft and vital to our society as a whole.  Music is an important part of achieving our District Goal (2010-2015): All students will show continuous progress toward their personal learning goals, developed in collaboration with teachers and parents, and will be prepared for post-secondary education and career success.

Return on Investment
Studies show that there is a tremendous return on investment when a music program is fully articulated K-12.  Students having consistent access and participation at an adequate level is what leads to the value of having music in our schools.  Elementary programs provide the foundation to prepare students to access middle and high school programs.  Additionally, the benefits of imagination, communication, confidence learned in elementary music follow a child even if (s)he does not continue into a middle or high school music program.  We must support full-funding for music programs at all levels K-12.

Relative to cuts in athletics and the general teaching population, cuts to music are disproportionately high.
• 30% of music teaching positions will be eliminated (19.0 out of 60.0 FTE).
• 19 music teachers will be laid off with a few being reassigned to a general classroom if they happen to have that additional certification.  That’s 14 from 34 elementary positions and 5 from 26 middle and high school positions.
• Of the 33 elementary schools, only 6 will retain a full-time music teacher at their school.
• 6 of 8 middle schools (not counting the options schools) are losing FTE.  Only Cedar Park will remain intact.
• 4 of 5 high schools are losing FTE.
• Regarding athletics, only golf and water polo were cut.

One additional Budget Reduction Day (a.k.a. unpaid furlough day) could save all threatened music positions across the district.
• Each day cut saves the district $1.2 million
• Saving 19 music teachers would cost approximately $1.3 million

The cuts to music are not “sustainable.”
The district often talks of making “sustainable” budget cuts, that is, permanent cuts that do not have to be made again the next year.  If cutting music is what the district considers to be “sustainable,” then are we to assume they plan to continue underfunding programs into the future?  What is the plan to reinstate the programs?  When and how?

We argue that cuts to our music program are not ”sustainable,” but rather they are fatal to our programs.  As we have seen in the past in other districts, cutting music to the levels proposed will not work.  The high school programs will be dead within a few years.

Once programs are cut, they rarely return
Case in point: Music program cuts were made in the early 1990s due to Measure 5.  Before those cuts, our district was home to an orchestra program that boasted 1700 fourth and fifth grade string students and 5000 elementary band students.  All of the high school band programs were staffed with full-time directors who also had assistants.  In addition to band and choir, there was a full 30-40 piece orchestra at each high school.  Those programs were cut in 1993 and have never returned.  Hardly anyone even remembers them anymore.

The proposed budget adds new programs and staff while cutting music programs and staff.
In order to cut costs on covering elementary teacher plan time, the district will institute two new “classes” that will be offered to every elementary student district-wide: media class and technology class.  These 45-minute sessions (delivered on approximately half of the students’ school days) will be supervised by instructional assistants who do not have a teaching certificate (some may not even have a college education).  No new material will be introduced by the instructional assistants during these sessions.  They amount to a study hall in the library and a study hall in the computer lab.  This proposal is akin to warehousing and babysitting students.  The IA’s are less expensive to employ, and thus save the district money.  While they are very nice people, they are essentially scabs for certified positions, and they are not providing education to students.  Having students spend instructional time being supervised at school by non-teachers is in conflict with the District Goal (2010-2015): All students will show continuous progress toward their personal learning goals, developed in collaboration with teachers and parents, and will be prepared for post-secondary education and career success because it does not help prepare them for post-secondary education and career success.  Only certified teachers can do that!

Music instruction will be extremely inequitable for students across the district.
All elementary students will have a 45-minute music class.  However, some will get music once every 4 days, while others will get music every 5, 6 or 8 days.  This plan is unacceptable.

Our community supports 10 Budget Reduction Days.
At meetings at every school during the month of February, the district collected information from parents and staff regarding how they would solve the budget crisis.  Survey results published by the district showed parents and staff overwhelmingly supported the notion of cutting ten days from the school year in order to preserve programs and teachers.  http://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/pdf/ci/ci_Budget%20Teaching%20Sessions%20Summary.pdf  (page 12)

Arguments for using Budget Reduction Days to balance our school budget
• Budget reduction days are unpaid furlough days, meaning that teachers take a pay cut to help the school system running.
• Budget reduction days preserve the educational integrity of a school system retaining teachers and important school programs.
They reduce the chaotic “bumping” of school staff that happens after layoffs, helping schools stay efficient and connected to their parent community.
• Budget reduction days are easy to replace when funding for schools goes back up.
• Budget reduction days encourage the public to put pressure on the legislature to FIX THE WEAK TAXATION AND APPROPRIATION POLICIES THAT CREATED OUR BUDGET SHORTFALL IN THE FIRST PLACE.
• Budget reduction days mitigate or prevent increases in class size.
• Budget reduction days keep school staff employed, so that they continue to contribute to state tax revenues that fund schools.
• Budget reduction days make school cuts noticeable by the general public.  They communicate the importance of funding schools properly in order to get the results we need.

The process of adding Budget Reduction Days (BRDs)
BRDs require negotiation with the Beaverton Education Association (teacher’s union).  The BEA membership recently accepted a contract with the district that proposed only five BRDs for 2012-13 and four for 2013-14.  Any additional BRDs would need to be negotiated and approved by the BEA.  This requires the School Board to take action on June 4th by rejecting the current budget proposal and insisting that central administration pursue additional BRDs with the union.  It is the school board’s duty to protect the school system.  They have said that these cuts are terrible, so why haven’t they done everything they could to mitigate them?  Adding five additional BRDs is an obvious choice.  The community supports it, and so do most teachers.

The district is purchasing new laptops for every teacher?!
The district plans to spend nearly $450,000 in 2012-13 to purchase a new laptop computer for every classroom teacher.  This expenditure had been deferred in the past to mitigate layoffs, but not this year.  The laptops are not needed!  This purchase can wait until funding levels improve.  Use the savings to retain more teachers!

Music is a Core Subject, Crucial to the Education of the Whole Child

Music is Cultural   Music is a unique means of transmitting our cultural heritage to succeeding generations. Music is a language that all people speak; it cuts across racial, cultural, social, educational and economic barriers, and enhances cultural appreciation and awareness. Through music students come to a better understanding of the nature of mankind as well as the diversities and similarities among cultures.

Music is Creative  There are infinite ways in which children can express themselves in a music class. Creativity is an essential element of music-making, composition, improvisation and performance. In this technological age, music education provides students with opportunities to use their imagination and think outside the box whether they are working alone or in groups. Music education has changed from the model of 40 years ago. Today, children learn in multiple modalities singing, dancing, playing instruments, creating, composing, improvising, moving freely, dramatizing, listening and evaluating music.

Music is Key to Brain Development  Music education profoundly affects brain development engaging all four parts of the brain and provides children opportunities to learn spatially, aurally, visually, kinesthetically, musically, interpersonally, intrapersonally, linguistically, and logically. Music has its own powerful language and symbol system which, when taught, requires students to analyze, compare, contrast, sequence, remember, and problem-solve. When children perform, they receive immediate feedback and opportunities for reflection. There is no doubt that the study of music improves academic achievement, enhances test scores, attitudes, social skills, critical and creative thinking.

Music is Life Skills  Music promotes character development and leadership in students. Musical experiences can boost self-esteem, reinforce positive social behaviors, promote teamwork and discipline.

Music is Community  Music teachers are essential leaders in school communities. They have contact with all children and their siblings. They often lead assemblies and host music programs which build a sense of community bringing families together to celebrate the arts, various traditions, and those experiences which build confidence and promote self-expression in children.

Music is Integral  Music Education integrates math, language, geography, history, science, social studies, art and physical education. Some students may struggle with regular classroom subjects yet find the joy of success in music.

Music is Fun  Music is the heart of the school, promoting school spirit. raising voices in song, and helping students to reach their potential through creativity and self-expression. Music enhances the quality of life integrating mind, body and spirit.