Concern about elementary band and strings reached a crescendo last spring and now the Vancouver School Board has to determine how the program will play on.
The VSB granted the elementary band and strings program a year’s reprieve in April with the hope the community would help the district find solutions to sustain the program without $630,651 from the board.
Those who consider music education essential packed 2014-2015 budget meetings and presented impassioned reasons why the program should continue.
VSB chairperson Patti Bacchus told the Courier Sept. 15 that conversations about the future of elementary band and strings had been “somewhat delayed” by the labour disruption because the district wants to involve teachers in talks and managers were busy “putting out fires.”
On Sept. 11, the board’s education and student services committee discussed hiring a consultant to lead a working group that would explore band and strings programs in other districts and various options.
Last year 2,900 students in grades 4 to 7 participated in elementary band and strings at 52 of 92 elementary schools in Vancouver. The program runs at 31 West Side schools and 21 East Side schools, including five inner city schools. Students pay $25 annually toward materials and parents rent the instruments.
Arrangements are made to support families who can’t afford these costs.
The district has funded the equivalent of eight full-time teachers, in addition to other staff at each site where the program is offered.
“Schools are required to offer fine arts instruction to students within the classroom and the learning outcomes for music are met in a variety of ways,” states a Sept. 5 memo to the committee from associate superintendent Maureen Ciarniello. “The elementary band and strings program runs in addition to the regular fine arts instruction, except in the few instances where it is offered within the timetable, and is an optional program over and above the curriculum requirements.”
Ciarniello outlined two potential options for the program.
Band and strings could be incorporated into preparation blocks at schools, but staff at individual schools would have to decide whether they supported this.
All students within the designated grades would have to participate and parents would have to rent instruments.
Alternatively, the district could partner with music schools to offer children lessons outside of school hours at schools or community centres.
“Examples of these organizations include St. James Academy, the Sarah McLachlan School of Music, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s School of Music,” the memo states. “During the budget review process in the spring 2014, numerous organizations expressed their interest in providing support to the district in its consideration of other options.”
Models and options are to be explored with a report back to the education and student services committee, Dec. 10.
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