Budget cuts silence the dreams of current and future
musicians
Watching the local 11 o’clock news Tuesday night made my stomach
turn, as the Hollister School District made yet another
announcement about people and program cuts it would be making to
shore up a more than $5 million budget deficit.
On the heels of eliminating the elementary sports program and
previously announced layoffs, trustees this week decided to
eliminate music programs, lay off more employees and trim library
and computer resources.
Budget cuts silence the dreams of current and future musicians
Watching the local 11 o’clock news Tuesday night made my stomach turn, as the Hollister School District made yet another announcement about people and program cuts it would be making to shore up a more than $5 million budget deficit.
On the heels of eliminating the elementary sports program and previously announced layoffs, trustees this week decided to eliminate music programs, lay off more employees and trim library and computer resources.
A few weeks before that, San Benito High School confirmed the long-standing rumor that freshmen sports will be eliminated next year if enough money isn’t raised to sustain it. Class sizes are on the rise and more cuts are on the horizon – from kindergarten through college. One of the most basic, fundamental and crucial aspects of society – education – is suffering a death by a thousand cuts.
The hundreds of people that gathered at the school district meeting to voice their displeasure with the cuts were sincere and concerned. They were children and adults; students and teachers; parents and volunteers. They were Hollister.
One news clip particularly stood out for me from that broadcast: a stern-faced young lady, her lower lip quivering, discussing how her younger sister began to cry when she found out she would not be able to follow in her big sister’s footsteps and take band in fourth grade next year.
That student, SBHS senior Sunami Zepeda, told me the next day that she felt compelled to speak because her third-grade sister “won’t have the same privilege that I had,” and that hurt Zepeda, who has been playing alto sax since she was a fourth-grader at R.O. Hardin School.
The need to reduce budgets by cutting programs makes sense to her from a practical standpoint, but she wonders if other measures couldn’t be taken.
“Why take away something so life-changing?” she asked.
Are extra-curricular activities really life-changing? Aren’t they just about fun and fellowship and trophies? They are a privilege, not a right … right?
For Zepeda, her introduction to band in fourth grade has led to eight years of an activity that has not only meant fun, fellowship and trophies, but discipline, education and, ultimately, a chance at a productive future.
Next year she will build upon her love of music to study audio production at the Art Institute in San Francisco.
“I’ve always wanted to open a local studio for local bands,” she said. “That would be cool. Or I can even help out the high school recording CD’s for the band.”
Zepeda has friends who have taken the lessons they have learned through Hollister’s music programs and moved on to college to continue developing their talents.
Last year’s drum major, Ali Bootwala, received a full-ride scholarship to Duke University.
“They saw he’s been dedicated to band since fourth grade and now he’s in college due to that program,” Zepeda said, pointing out that just like athletes, local musicians are compelled to keep their grades up and their behavior appropriate in order to remain eligible to do what they love.
The activities are called extra-curricular, but there is no doubt they are part of the curriculum.
Zepeda and her friends were planning on Thursday, the last day of finals, to wear T-shirts to school saying “Music is life; why take it away?”
“Kind of a silent protest sort of thing,” she said.
Budget cuts have to be made and people and programs are what those budgets support, so they suffer. As painful and disappointing as the measures are today, their true effect will be felt more deeply over time.
So what would Zepeda do or say to the decision-makers?
“Look at what you are spending your money on and plan more wisely.”
Zepeda is proof that education is not just about books and classrooms and standardized tests. It is about expression and opportunity and creativity.
Whether we are students or teachers or parents or citizens with seemingly no tie to the educational system, its future, its success or failure, will impact all of us. We must do what’s right to balance budgets, which often means painful cuts. Hopefully, though, our community’s collective spirit will come up with creative ways to keep the dreams of aspiring musicians and athletes and computer technicians alive until we make it through this economic crisis.
If we can, perhaps we can keep the scars from those cuts from becoming permanent.
Adam Breen writes a blog at http://thebreenblog.blogspot.com and teaches newspaper and yearbook classes at San Benito High School. He is a reporter for the Pinnacle and former editor of the Free Lance.
