ORANGE — Protesters entered Ralph C. Mahar Regional School on Wednesday evening holding signs with phrases such as “Save our sound” to encourage the Mahar and Orange Elementary school committees to discuss recent music program cuts.
The group, organized on a Facebook page titled “Save the Sounds of the Senators,” attended the meetings in a bid to get music program cuts on the next meeting’s agenda. Recently, the elementary school music teacher’s position was eliminated and a music teacher at Mahar was let go because of extensive budget cuts.
Stephanie Parker, the group’s organizer and a parent of children in the district, as well as the conductor of the Orange Community Band, said even though the music program wasn’t on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting, they wanted their voices to be heard.
“We’re here just to be present,” Parker said. “(School committee members) need to think seriously about music. … We want to push them to put it on the agenda.”
Parker added that the music program has been more severely impacted than other departments when it comes to budget cuts. She argued that if it is not possible to hire someone for financial reasons, then the committees should explore other avenues.
“Not every kid plays sports,” Parker said. “They should find alternate ways for a music program — grants, after-school programs or volunteers.”
There were three school committee meetings happening simultaneously: Mahar, Orange and Petersham. Parker was able to provide public comment at the Mahar meeting where she asked the committee to further discuss music program cuts.
“I urge you to put music staffing on the agenda,” Parker said. “Please consider it for our community, for our students.”
After Parker’s comments, Mahar School Committee Chair Peter Cross said the committee will add music staffing discussions to the agenda for the next meeting, which is scheduled for Sept. 9.
Kyle Stevens, another parent who has students in the district, said music is integral to his children’s lives and that a stronger music program could benefit all students.
“It’s a pretty big concern in our house,” Stevens said. “(It’s amazing) how much a well-funded music program offers.”
Alumnus Andy Bates argued Mahar needs to rehire a second teacher to round out its music program.
“We need two teachers with two different perspectives,” he said. “So it isn’t one teacher doing a passable job, but two teachers doing a great job.”
Cross said one of Mahar’s music teachers had resigned and it was decided not to fill the position because Orange had asked the school to cut more than $260,000 from its assessment.
He said $175,000 came from excess and deficiency funds, while the remaining $86,000 came from music and athletic program cuts. He estimated about $50,000 (and someone else’s job) was saved when it was decided to not rehire a second music teacher.
“A good bit of that $86,000 was from not filling that vacant position,” Cross said in a phone interview following the meetings. “If we filled it, then we would have had to lay off somebody that was working.”
The Orange Elementary School Committee, however, did not allow public comment because of time constraints relating to a joint School Committee meeting being held immediately after the three separate meetings.
Stephanie Conrod, chair of the Orange Elementary School Committee, said public comment had to be skipped over because of the joint meeting.
“We were dealing with a time crunch because we had to deal with the business of the school,” Conrod said. “I am not unsympathetic to their concerns.”
Conrod said the solution to music staffing concerns is more funding from the state government.
“We need a bigger pot of money from the state. … It has to happen at the legislative level,” Conrod said. “We would be more than happy to have the extracurricular activities that we haven’t been able to utilize these past few years.”
In other business, this was the first in-person meeting for the Mahar School Committee. The committee honored longtime member Thomas Bates, who is retiring after 31 years.
Committee member Patricia Smith said Bates was a great help during the pandemic.
“Tom was a very welcome member of the committee,” Smith said. “We’re glad you waited to retire.”
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.