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Music program weakened, parent tells board
(by Sue Hoffman - August 31, 2011)
Music program weakened, parent tells board
By SUE HOFFMAN
A parent from Chester told the West Geauga School Board last week that the instrumental music program for fifth-graders was weakened by the reduction of a district music teacher's position from full time to part time.
"I think it is difficult to keep the integrity of the program as it is," Virginia Burke said. "With the program weakened by the loss of a teacher, I believe that we're going to have a program that's going to eventually wither and die, and I really don't want to see that happen.
"I'm asking you to consider another teacher that could come in and re-establish the great music program so that it could be strong from the bottom up."
Staff cuts were part of a $750,000 budget reduction approved by the school board last spring. Among the reductions in force was a school nurse.
Following the reductions, school officials said they realized they needed a part-time nurse for students with medical needs.
When full-time music teacher Kristen Cottrell resigned, Superintendent Thomas Diringer proposed to the board last month that the district recall the nurse part-time and hire a part-time music teacher, who, combined, would fill one full-time equivalent position.
Last week, the board hired Vanessa Pintabona, a 2006 graduate of West Geauga High School, as the part-time music teacher. She is the daughter of school board member Benjamin Pintabona, who recused himself from voting on her hire.
"She is the best-qualified candidate," middle school Principal Jim Kish said in introducing her to the board. She will be teaching sixth- and seventh-grade vocal music and eighth-grade general music at the middle school.
Dr. Diringer said another teacher will continue to teach fifth-grade instrumental music. What is changing, he said, is that the instruction will no longer involve team teaching.
Music programs among local school districts vary, he said, and "the concepts of team teaching are shifting.
"Is there a loss? Certainly," he said. Because of financial needs, the district also lost a library staff member and others, Dr. Diringer said. "It's never easy to do that."
School board President William Beers said, although the board had discussed reducing the music position to half time to allow the district to add a half-time nurse, he was disappointed. "It was not clear to me that we had made a decision that the fifth-grade band was not being covered in some way. It is not clear to me how the fifth-grade band is going to continue to have the kind of staffing that it did," he said.
"Are there rearrangements that can be done within the music staff to cover the fifth-grade band and still do team-teaching?" he asked.
Mr. Beers said that in the past music personnel were involved in the hiring of new staff, a process that did not appear to be followed this time.
Dr. Diringer said he believed the hiring of staff was an administrative responsibility.
When they start the instrumental music program in fifth grade at Westwood and Lindsey elementary schools, some of the students have never had lessons, Mrs. Burke said, and they need the teachers to help get started. "That's why it's so important to have two teachers."
Mrs. Burke said she has four sons, including two who graduated from the instrumental music program and one who is starting it. Her son who just graduated from West Geauga High School is now taking music education and performance at the University of Akron, she said.
"The reason he chose that profession was the encouragement they gave him," she said of the music teachers.
She presented research published in the International Journal of Musical Education about the benefits of a good instrumental music program, including the enhancement of math skills, literacy, fine motor coordination, concentration, self-confidence, social skills and creativity.
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