Rocky Road to Revised Fourth Grade Music Program

When they sent out the agenda for last Wednesday's school board meeting, district administrators were careful to point out that changes to the music program would be discussed. Music education advocates had complained vociferously that they had been left out of the decision-making process that has resulted in a new plan for fourth grade instruction. Administrators and school board members acknowledged Wednesday that the process had been flawed.

Starting next fall, lessons in music theory and notation will be rolled into fourth grade vocal music classes according to the Orff-Schulwerk method. Recorder and singing lessons will be added to instrumental music classes, pushing the orchestral instrument rotation, which has historically been the highlight of the fourth grade program, later in the school year. Instead of students choosing what instrument they want to specialize in at the end of fourth grade, they'll make that decision at the beginning of fifth grade.

"On the face of it … [the new plan for fourth grade music] actually sounds better maybe than this current year's program," said Tom Nemeth, who sits on the board of CHIME, which advocates for music education in Piedmont public schools. "We've come a long way from the original announcement of a change that a lot of people were not very happy with."

The first announcement, which spelled out a plan to replace the decades-old instrumental music program with Orff, was made at a tri-school site council meeting held at Havens Elementary in February. Neither the music faculty nor CHIME had yet been alerted to the proposal.

School board member Martha Jones said Wednesday the announcement at that February site council meeting had been premature.

"This announcement was a very bad start for the process," Jones said. "It's gone from bad to worse."

School board member June Monach said in an earlier interview that parents are routinely invited to site council meetings and that the potential for changes to music and other elementary school programs had also been introduced at parent club meetings in March and April.

But in each case, music had been brought up under a broader agenda item about how the elementary schools might cut as much as $200,000 in spending to help close the district's overall shortfall. Monach conceded that those who didn't tune in for those high-level budget discussions could have easily missed the talk of curriculum.

"Those who care most deeply about music feel blindsided," she said.

The school district met with CHIME about the plans in April, but Nemeth said the group was told then that Orff was off the table.

Orff reemerged as part of a revised plan for the music program described in elementary school newsletters sent out to parents in May. An uproar subsequently ensued with supporters of the existing music program exchanging barbs with school board members, administrators, and music teachers over emails, some of which were reprinted in local media.

One lengthy message from Wildwood Elementary parent Stella Ngai, published in the Piedmont Post June 15, accused the district of violating the rules for curriculum development that require input from students and parents and public hearings in advance of adoption by the school board.

Jones responded Wednesday that neither the school board nor district administrators had intentionally avoid public input.

"I've heard that the letters sent to the press were a deliberate attempt to embarrass the district because parents felt that their emails weren't being answered quickly enough. … We can't always respond immediately," Jones said. "There's an unavoidable time lag for these things to be worked out. That's just the way it is."

Jones put in a plug for site councils as a venue where parents and others can have the ear of administrators while they're crafting curriculum. Beach Elementary Principal Julie Valdez said music would surely be on site council agendas in the coming year as the new program is evaluated.

But John Elliott, a parent and the chair of the district's Citizens Advisory Committee on Parcel Taxes, implored the district leadership to do more to involve all stakeholders in consideration of programs and budgets. The regular slate of afternoon meetings, he said, only reach a small minority like himself who work from home.

"Please give staff direction to continue to expand real opportunities for public participation," said Elliott. "Doing Budget Advisory Committee and site council, that's not enough."