Cuts in the Windham-Raymond School Department budget would slowly erode and ultimately kill Windham’s vaunted music tradition, parents and teachers said this week in response to a proposal that would eliminate the music program at Windham Middle School.

The budget proposal, which attempts to shut a $1 million shortfall in the $40 million spending plan, cuts 25 teaching and support staff positions throughout the district, including the two music teaching positions at Windham Middle School. The plan effectively eliminates the orchestra program at the Middle School and moves the band and chorus offerings to after school.

The Windham-Raymond School Board is now reviewing the budget proposal. The board will hold a public hearing on the budget Wednesday, April 1, at 6:30 p.m. at the Windham Town Council Chambers. The budget has to be approved by residents first at a meeting May 27 then at the polls June 9.

A path to failure?

The elimination of the middle school music program shocked many Windham community members who are used to celebrating the school district’s many musical achievements. So deep is the musical legacy in Windham that a sign on the town line mentions the renowned Windham Chamber Singers, so it came as a surprise that the music program would be targeted for budget cuts.

“How can you take the music out of Windham?” said Laura Fleischer, whose son Daniel is a Chamber Singer. “It says ‘Home of the Windham Chamber Singers’ on the sign. That’s what we are known for.”

In the days following the budget announcement, parents, teachers and former and current students have come together to form a unified front against the cuts. They handed out information at performances, started an e-mail list with around 350 people, and created a Facebook group, all with the purpose of gathering forces to save the Middle School music classes, and with them, they believe, the music program as a whole.

While the cuts are targeted at the Middle School program, parents and teachers feared the loss of the program would lower significantly the number of students who arrive at Windham High School with musical experience. Without the Middle School feeder program, interest in music at the high school level would drop, they argued, and ultimately the music program there would fail, too.

“It’s going to whither away what we have now. The Windham Chamber Singers will some day not be there. That is my concern,” said Fleischer.

“We will have a pathway that leads to the failure of the music program,” said Michele Kaschub, a parent of three students in the Windham system, and the head of the music teacher education program at University of Southern Maine.

“I didn’t think it could happen in this community. It happens in small schools that have challenges that Windham doesn’t have.”

Making music an after-school program will keep many students from participating, either because they cannot get a ride or because they have other activities, such as athletics, said Rick Nickerson, chorus instructor at the high school and the conductor of the Windham Chamber Singers.

It will be difficult to maintain the same level of instruction in an after school program as well, Nickerson said. As a result, many students will begin their musical instruction in high school, he said.

“It can’t be replicated. It’s a major concern to take a program and put it after school. We can’t be starting kids on instruments in the ninth grade. It’s going to be devastating,” Nickerson said.

Learning from history

Nickerson and Charles Oehrtmann, a music teacher at Windham Middle School, said cuts made in the past to the music program at lower levels have greatly impacted the number of Windham students participating in music in the district.

Twenty years ago, Oehrtmann said, there were in-school band, orchestra and chorus programs as early as third grade, and at the time around 165 kids participated in orchestra across the district. The programs in third, fourth and fifth grade have now either been eliminated or pushed after school, he said. According to administrators, 53 students are now in either the high school or middle school orchestra.

Since the cuts were announced, Oehrtmann has conducted an informal survey of his students, asking around 30 kids if they would participate in a music program outside of school. Only one or two of the students said they would, he said.

Kaschub said she experienced this impulse first-hand after instrumental instruction was cut at Manchester School, Windham’s fourth- and fifth-grade school. It took a lot of extra work, from parents and students, to get the lessons they once got during the school day, she said.

“I spent a year dropping off my kid at 7:30 for his trombone lessons. It’s Maine. That’s months when they would be going in the dark,” she said.

The situation leads to an unfair playing field, Nickerson said.

“You’ve limited the program to the kids who have support at home. We want all kids to have the opportunity,” he said.

Tough times

Windham Middle School Principal Hal Shortsleeve told the School Board this weekend that he realizes the importance and value of the music program. He was ordered to present a budget without a tax increase, and had to cut $185,000 to do it, Shortsleeve said. Cutting the expensive music program saved around $100,000, and it was the best of many poor options, the least disruptive to education, and the easiest to duplicate after school, he said.

“We are putting this on the table because we were asked to complete a very difficult task,” Shortsleeve told the board.

But study after study concludes that music, which is a core subject in both the Maine Learning Results and No Child Left Behind Acts, benefits students in ways that exceed the ability to sing or play an instrument, Kaschub said.

“It’s a way of knowing about the world that is not tied up in words and numbers. Kids who work with music experience incredible changes in how the brain is used,” she said.

“Part of what we have to get away from is that music is a frill,” said Nickerson. “Research clearly shows music students overall do better with test scoring. It helps the cognitive function of the brain.”

The budget issues are certainly a concern, Nickerson said. But Windham has the lowest per pupil costs in the county. With that in mind, he said, it is up to residents whether they want to spend a little extra to maintain a unique and beneficial program.

“As a community, we have to decide what it is we truly value,” said Nickerson. “I hope music is something the community values.”