More voices are questioning the county school system’s plan to reduce staffing for several high school music programs.
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.”
Rockville High is also expected to lose one of its choir instructors, served an “involuntary transfer” notice, given to teachers at schools with fluctuating enrollment, according to school system officials.
After the Springbrook community’s public pleas, the school system reversed course, choosing to keep two full-time music instructors for the next year.
Parents say they are noticing a theme: High poverty schools are losing music instructors, limiting students’ access to “enriching curriculum.”
All three schools have a poverty rate above 50% and have majority-minority student populations.
Moller argued low-income students who have less access to privately funded programs should be given more opportunities, not fewer. These students are less likely to be able to afford instruments or dedicate time to the arts without support. Music classes also aid social and cognitive skills and strengthens impulse control, she said.
“We should be supporting our high school music students by offering subsidized or free instrument rentals and classes throughout the school day, and support our teachers by helping them reach out to build their programs, not reduce them,” Moller said.
Rockville parent Deb Stahl said her daughter, a junior, has had six different chorus instructors between middle and high school and constant turnover dissuades students from joining classes and potential teachers from wanting to pursue careers at the school.
“Talking to other music teachers around the county, I can tell you that that this is affecting MCPS music teacher morale … and we’re getting a negative reputation for prospective music teachers as a result,” Stahl said. “The “involuntary transfer” process leaves us to wonder if the new part-time positions pieced together for us will leave us anywhere near the programs we spent time and sweat and tears trying to build up.”
Each year, the school system shifts teachers based on enrollment, aiming to retain teachers and adequately staff schools, according to a school system spokesman.
“We want to manage expectations. I think it’s wonderful when students talk about how really care about their teachers because of all of the extra things they give to them,” said Kimberly Statham, a deputy superintendent for the school system. “Unfortunately, we can’t staff solely around that, that’s why look at multiple measures.”
Caitlynn Peetz can be reached at caitlynn.peetz@moco360.media
