NORWICH – A group of approximately 25 parents and students involved with the Norwich High School music program met Wednesday night to discuss scheduling changes for the 2011-2012 school year they feel will significantly impact its success.
Starting this year, music ensembles at NHS, including band, orchestra and choir, will be scheduled during the same block of time on a daily basis. That means students wishing to participate in more than one ensemble would be forced to choose one over another, which would result in approximately 50 percent less instructional time for those students.
Such a change, according to Betsy Mahannah, grandmother of soon-to-be NHS senior Josh Mahannah, will have a decidedly negative impact on each and every student involved in the music program. The proposed schedule, she added, “isn’t justified.”
The topic has been discussed at length at the past two Norwich Board of Education meetings, at which dozens of students, parents and educators have spoken.
So far, said Mahannah, their words have fallen on deaf ears.
In fact, Mahannah is just one parent who’s been told by NCSD administration that the music program simply isn’t as important as others, as it’s not tested.
Mary Mayo, choir director at NHS, said she’s been told the same thing and disagrees with that assessment.“We take our tests publicly,” stated Mayo. “How can you test the effect of music on the spirit? How can you test on paper for that?”
School board member Sally Chirlin also attended last night’s meeting, and said she’s concerned the music curriculum at the high school will be severely undermined by the scheduling changes.
“I am strongly advocating a policy of, if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it,” said Chirlin. “People are spending far too much of their valuable time trying to combat bad decisions being made by the Norwich City School District’s administration.”
The most important thing, she added, is that students needs are met “first, last and always.”
Julia Ward, parent of incoming NHS junior Thomas Whitney, said the scheduling changes will also have a negative impact on the Student Government Organization and National Honor Society, when you consider the number of music students who are involved in both.
“These are the students who are running the school alongside the administrators,” she added. “If you negatively impact the students in music program, the morale is going to go down, which is going to filter back through to the rest of the student body. This is not just a few students affected by this change, this is impacting all of the students in the district and the families in our community.”
It will also affect the other students involved with the choir and band ensembles, said Ward. Without a full ensemble gathered for instruction each and every day, students aren’t challenged to do their best, she added, and don’t have the “mentoring relationships and peer interaction that is needed to make them as talented” as they’ve been in the past.
According to Mayo, there are a number of “unintended consequences” when it comes to the scheduling change. And while she doesn’t think anyone set out to cut the music program, the decision is undermining the strength of a program that’s seen unprecedented success in the past decade, and particularly in the last year.
“I want to maintain the integrity of the program and these decisions weaken the program in ways they’re not anticipating,” she added. “Collectively, we have questions that have not been answered. Not having every member of the ensemble in attendance affects the entire ensemble; it’s a team effort.”
Superintendent Gerard O’Sullivan said the administration has held several large group and individual meetings with parents and students and said they’ll continue to do so.
“We’re listening and we’ve been working very hard on a schedule that benefits the most students,” he added. “We’re going with a schedule where students still get orchestra, band and choir and it’s best to give more students more instructional time than all students getting less.”
In addition, the administration is offering transportation for students who wish to stay after school an extra 45 minutes for instruction.
“We’ve got almost 700 students in that building and we have to have a schedule that fits all 700 students,” added the superintendent. “Some parents are happy with this because their kids can take both band and chorus and continue in both programs. The other students are just going to have to make a choice ... we’re always looking for solutions.”
Incoming NHS junior Colin Burlison said the group of parents and students have assembled a list of questions which they’ll present to O’Sullivan at a proposed meeting, tentatively scheduled for Tuesday of next week.
“We’ve agreed that there have been many miscommunications between us and the administration that need to be cleared up,” stated Burlison. “We feel that if we were presented with hard evidence of the reasons which show there is nothing we can do, we could accept that there is nothing we can do. Unfortunately, the administration has not presented those reasons.”
According to Mahannah, the group of parents and students have “had enough of the misinformation, the lack of transparency and the lack of public discussion.”
“We would like to take a look at all of the options available before a final decision is reached,” she added. “We need some honest, straight forward answers and the administration needs to work with these teachers who know what’s needed and can offer some insight.”