Local music teachers are urging parents to speak up to save the Burnaby school district’s unique elementary school music program.
Teachers fear the program, which sees every kindergarten to Grade 7 student in the district get an hour and a half of music instruction every week, will be decimated as the school board looks to cut $3.1 million from its operating budget.
“We want the trustees to realize how much parents value what we already have and that we don’t want to lose what we already have, as we have seen in other districts,” Suncrest Elementary music teacher Pam Hetrick told the NOW.
She has written a letter urging parents to contact trustees to let them know how they feel about their kids’ music education.
The Burnaby school music program is unique in the province, Hetrick said, in that it offers kindergarten-to-Grade 7 instruction in all schools, and each school has a dedicated music room and qualified music teacher.
It’s a valuable resource that was championed for years by the now-retired School District No. 41 director of instruction John White, according to Hetrick, and made possible by the district’s sound financial management.
But that legacy is in jeopardy, Hetrick said, as the district looks to cut $3.1 million from its operating budget.
Proposed plans unveiled by the district at a public budget meeting last Wednesday include cutting 8.8 non-enrolling teacher positions, which include music teachers, librarians and resource teachers.
And at a recent principals meeting, Hetrick said principals were told music teachers and librarians could end up splitting NIS, the 1.5 hours of mandated prep time classroom teachers have every week.
“Right now it’s completely covered by music, which means I see every child for an hour and a half a week,” Hetrick said. “It means I can actually have a program where they learn. They have fun, but they’re also learning musical skills that I build upon, and that’s what makes it a successful program is that I have that time.”
She said a similar move in Vancouver not too long ago decimated that school district’s music program as school officials chose to cover NIS with library time.
She doesn’t want the same thing to happen in Burnaby and believes local parents feel the same way.
“I think parents do realize the importance of music,” she said. “I think what parents don’t realize is that they might be losing it.”
The district proposed a range of possible cuts totalling $4.4 million at last week’s budget forum.
The biggest savings would come from a proposed increase to class sizes at the secondary level, which would eliminate 16 full-time teaching jobs and save nearly $1.5 million.
Trustees and union officials alike blamed provincial under-funding for the district’s projected $3.1 million shortfall.
The final cuts will be announced at the April 22 school board meeting.
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