District to Keep Full-Time Positions for Band, Chorus Directors

  music program breathed a collective sigh of relief as the school board voted 7-2 at its Jan. 9 meeting to keep both band and choral directorships as full-time positions.

to replace retiring directors Kevin O'Connell and Dennis Smith. Another idea was to make the choral position part-time.

Earlier, the board voted to permit Fellin to look for one person to do both jobs, but Fellin said that after interviewing qualified candidates she felt it would not be feasible for someone to take on both roles.

"I've found from the interviews I've conducted, one person could not do the job effectively to maintain the program," she said. "There are not enough hours in the day (for one person) to fulfill both positions."

Board member Lanita Lum agreed with Fellin’s conclusion.

“I will maintain that these two positions need to be full-time positions,” Lum said. “I think we should hire very qualified people and make these programs even better than they were before.”

School board member Bryan Eichfeld questioned what would happen if one position were only part-time.

According to  principal Eric Kahler, students would lose four electives: vocal music, piano class, music skills and Today’s Music.

Kahler said these classes have current enrollments of about four to 12 students.

“First of all, Mr. Smith and Mr. O’Connell have been outstanding, (and) in a perfect world I’d say 'let's add more (positions),' but we are not in a perfect world,” Eichfeld said. “We are facing a lot of challenges. It is getting scary for taxpayers. What happens if there are only two students enrolled in these courses?”

Eichfeld and board vice president Sandra Baxter ultimately voted against having two full-time director positions.

Board president Michael Karabin--who voted in favor of retaining two full-time positions--asked Kahler if having one full-time and one part-time teacher would work.

“I can make the schedule work, but students will lose electives,” Kahler said. "It is worth two full-time teachers to have a full music experience."

Current students, former students and parents were allowed to speak for more than an hour about their thoughts on the district’s music program. They all adamantly agreed that the two positions should be full-time.

“Even if you were to hire someone part-time, it will be a full-time position,” said former Saucon Valley student and music teacher Mike Schmidt.

“This school district has gotten it very right with its fine arts program,” said parent Jennifer Altemose. "Everyone here knows the benefit of music education. The higher the participation rates, the higher the test scores. The music program here is not just popular; it is very, very good. To undermine it at this point is not only sad, but something the district could not recover from."