Participation in band and choir provide a basis for lifelong learning and enjoyment. Many of our students have gone on to participate in music in college and beyond.
We have a number of OHS graduates who have professional music careers or have gone on to teach music at different levels.
Music continues to play a role in the lives of OHS graduates, as you may see them performing in the community band, the church choir or local musical theater.
Lastly, this district has worked hard to build the music programs.Our instrumental and vocal music programs have increased in size at the middle school and high school levels over the last few years, with total band enrollment of 110 students. Choirs in the middle school and high school have a total enrollment of 130 students.
Our music department often receives compliments from other school personnel about the positive, polite and respectful behavior of our students and the quality of our small and large group ensembles.
While a reduction in staff time may not tarnish that reputation, we are at great risk of losing the quality directors who have worked with our children to reinforce the importance of music in their lives.
As school board members make final decisions regarding the budget cuts for the coming school year, we urge them to reconsider reducing our band and choir positions to part-time.
I will leave you with this conclusion from a US Department of Education study:
“We have clear empirical evidence that children in what we have called the low-arts schools are less able to extend their thinking. It appears that a narrowly conceived curriculum, in which the arts are either not offered or are offered in limited and sporadic amounts, exerts a negative effect on the development of critical cognitive competencies and personal dispositions ... This suggests that a flexible curriculum which paces in -depth arts experiences to a sensitive appreciation of developmental needs leads to learning that combines the kind of persistence and confidence necessary for academic accomplishment... Our findings led us to the conclusion that, all things being equal, the arts are neither ancillary nor core, but rather that they are participants in the development of critical ways of thinking and learning.”
Teresa Wyant, Orion Music Boosters
