Next year the district faces state budget cuts and will open two new elementary schools. Officials said that 14 positions created by the new schools will not be filled in order to balance the budget -- two will be music teachers. Current teachers will have to spread their responisibility to even more schools for instruction -- a move many feel will spread them too thin.
In response, band boosters, teachers and parents of music students have banded together to fight the plan. They've handed out fliers, designed a sophisticated Web site that touts the benefits of music and chronicles the history of cuts in the district. They plan to attend, in large numbers, a governing board meeting May 22 to speak out against a proposal they say goes too far.
"If I had a student that was an outstanding musician or singer, then I would be concerned too, but reductions have to be made," said Terry Bradley, deputy superintendent of administrative services.
Bradley said reductions must be made throughout the district, noting that the largest number is at the administrative level.
"Music is very important to this community, and so are all the arts -- and they always will be," said Bradley.
Yet parents of music students are finding it hard to believe that the district equally supports the arts. This is not the first time, they say, that the elementary music program has taken a hit during budget reductions and restructuring.
Plus, they say, giving less to a program at the elementary level will hurt participation in arts programs at the intermediate and high school levels.
They also cite research that shows students benefit academically from music education.
"Everybody is so stretched as it is. To do this just increases the burden. This is not maintenance of the program; this is reduction of it," said Linda McKinney, a parent of a music student and press liaison of the new opposition group, Concerned Parents of CUSD Music Students.
While the parents say they don't want to push for cuts in the athletic department or touch off an arts-versus-athletics debate, they did note on a flier that both new elementary schools will have fifth- and sixth-grade tackle football programs funded.
"This is not an attack on the athletic program in the district. We just want to make sure that the district practices what it preaches and support the arts as heavily as they do athletics," said Richard Strong, who has three children -- all in music programs and like other parents has long been a district supporter.
According to Strong, the district has been eroding the music program for years now.
Over the past decade, the elementary music program has been reduced from two hours of instruction a week to one per week. More time has been spent in general music instruction in the classroom, and teachers have been given more classroom prep time, Strong said.
"To take such a small population of teachers who already have a large population of students to teach, and add on that (the district) has already diminished their instruction time, that's it. Enough is enough," said Strong, who moved to the Clovis Unified district largely because of the music program.
Another point of contention for parents and teachers is that the district wants to move teachers from place to place to cover the shortage -- in many instances taking them away from the schools and communities in which they've built relationships.
"To do both of these things to the music teachers in one year is kicking them in the emotional teeth," said David Anthony, chairman of the Clovis West band booster organization.
The district said that moving the teachers to different schools is an effort to equalize the amount of instruction per classroom and child. According to Bradley, the current system has some teachers working in schools with 500 students and some with 800. This would attempt to balance instruction time.
But opponents say changes in the younger grades will ultimately hurt participation in intermediate and high school bands and diminish the achievement of the music program as a whole.
By reducing instrumental instruction time, replacing much of it with general music instruction and then thinning the staff, Anthony said you also reduce the time children actually play the instruments, which draws them to music in the first place.
"Children are the most interested in music when they first start, and if you bore them early on or don't give them the immersion to interest them in elementary schools, you may never get them," said Anthony.
Anthony said reductions in the elementary music program have led to lower enrollment in high school programs over the years. This means that those participating in the high school have more catching up to do and more to pay for just to be in the program.
"It's a double whammy," said Anthony, who expects to see only 130 Clovis West students enroll in the band program next year. In years past, the number has been around 300.
Right now, parents of high school band members have to pay a $500 activity fee that helps pay for uniforms, equipment and some of the travel expenses.
"I understand that the district has budget concerns, but they aren't fully funding music programs as it is," said McKinney.
Beyond saving the music program for the sake of music itself, parents and teachers said that participation in a music education program improves academic achievement.
Numerous studies have been done on the effect of music education on student learning and performance, including one by a former Clovis Unified music teacher Dan Zanutto.
Now a professor at California State University, Long Beach, Zanutto conducted a five-year study on some 14,000 Clovis Unified 11th graders. Half of the students had participated in music education for three to five years and half had not. In every area of the study -- from math grades to English grades to writing proficiency tests, from standardized tests like the CBEST to daily attendance -- students in music programs had higher grades, scores and levels of attendance.
"There is such a propensity of evidence in my study and others like that of the College Board showing that participation in music education is highly beneficial. ...To ignore these facts is short-sighted," said Zanutto.
Parents like Laura Whitehouse have seen proof of this. Whitehouse's son Adam was in first grade when he first wanted to play a musical instrument, at that time the saxophone -- which might have been bigger than him. This year, he is in fourth grade and Whitehouse has started paying for private trumpet lessons.
(The district doesn't have instrument programs until fifth grade.)
Whitehouse said that while her son's grades were always pretty good, they have improved since he learned to play the trumpet and read music.
"He's gotten straight A's all year and has a 100 percent standing in his math scores. We have seen such a difference in him since he started playing music," she said.
"I wish that I had had an opportunity to learn to read and play music at an early age like my son. This is really working for our family."
Stories like this are told often by fans of music education. Anthony said that every year the students in Clovis West's band program are in the top echelon of academic achievement -- three of the school's 12 valedictorians were band students, he said. McKinney said her son has been on the President's Honor Roll.
"This is why we don't want cuts in the elementary program. It is a domino effect. If they don't get that exposure and interest started early, it is harder and harder to get later on," said McKinney.
Bradley said that the district is not currently considering any other options for the 14 positions. Concerned parents said they hope that their presence at the meeting and well-researched arguments will have some effect.
"I just think that the district needs to look at the programs and what they are proposing and make sure that they are not making a mistake by reducing the music program," said Whitehouse.
For more information about the Concerned Parents of CUSD Music Students, go to www.cwband.org and look for the link to the group's Web site.
E-mail Heather Kulterman at hkulterman@clovisindependent.com.