Three students at Elora Public School (EPS) are fighting to keep their school’s instrumental music program intact.
About two weeks ago, Grade 7 students Quinn Caplice, Jamie Weaver and Luke May started a petition to keep the program running with current music teacher Kelly Stronach after they heard Stronach may be leaving the school.
Weaver said students were told Stronach “won’t be coming back next year because of a student shortage in the school and that the school board might not have a music program next year and they might just get a music teacher to teach maybe singing or drumming.”
He added, “I personally think that … music is the best part of my week so I thought that I really want to keep the music program and Quinn and Luke and I started a way to do that.”
The Upper Grand District School Board’s (UGDSB) enrolment projection for the 2015-16 school year at EPS was 433 students with 88.9% occupancy. The enrolment projections for 2016-17 are 427 students with 87.7% occupancy.
“At this time of year, we look at staffing for next September,” board spokesperson Heather Loney stated in an email.
“Staffing is allocated based on current and projected student enrolment. So, if enrolment is going down at a school, that school may find itself in a surplus position, meaning the staff members who are the lowest in seniority may be reassigned to another school.”
Loney said the board is in the early stages of the staffing process, adding, “We value the music programs being taught in our schools, and these programs will continue to be part of the curriculum.”
EPS parent council chair Lianne Carter Ladner reiterated that nothing has been decided yet.
“Things can happen in June that we all might sit back and say, ‘why did we waste our time on this, it all worked out,’” she said.
“So under the pretense that nothing is finalized, everything can change, even in September. Things might all work out, however we live in Elora, we can’t just sit back.”
Ladner said the parent council’s biggest concern is the possibility of losing Stronach, though Ladner pointed out the school would continue to offer music regardless of staffing outcomes.
Because Stronach is low on the board’s seniority list, she’s one of the first to potentially be sent to a different school if enrolment at EPS decreases.
It’s outlined in the Elementary Teacher’s Federation of Ontario collective agreement that decisions on teacher placement are based on seniority, Ladner explained.
“Basically us saying she’s so fantastic, she goes above and beyond, she teaches every band instrument, she’s a diamond in the rough – and those things are absolutely true – but really there’s not a lot we can really do because of the way her contract is structured,” Ladner said.
EPS experienced a similar scare in May 2013 when the school thought it was losing its instrumental music program, but it was spared.
Caplice, Weaver and May are working to get word out that the school could lose its music teacher. They are encouraging people to sign a petition at http://tinyurl.com/zvy5o59.
“We’re going around to classes … and we’ve shown the website URL to a bunch of people so that they know about it,” Weaver said. “We’re going to try to share it around a bit more. “
For some EPS students, music is more than just a subject.
“I just find that we have such a large amount of kids that participate,” Caplice said.
“It’s also a way to get seals that aren’t through Sports and the amount of instruments and kids that participate is really quite phenomenal.”
Seals are an acknowledgement for participation in extracurricular activities.
Apart from actual music classes, the school offers a band for Grade 6/7 students, a band for Grade 7/8 students, “School of Rock” (where students play rock band musical instruments) and a choir.
Weaver said those clubs won’t be the same without Stronach.
“Ms. Stronach is … just the greatest teacher ever because she makes every student feel special and like they know how to play their instrument even if they’re really bad at it,” Weaver said.
“But if she has to go we just really want a teacher who can teach instrumental music because since Ms. Stronach has shown such an amazing instrumental music program we [want] a teacher to keep it going.”
The EPS parent council is scheduled to hold a meeting at the school’s library on May 2 at 7pm for parents to ask questions and voice their concerns about the fate of the music program.
The parent council will also make a presentation at the May 3 meeting of the Upper Grand District School Board program committee.
“Bottom line, the only thing we can really do is bring it to [the board’s] attention and basically say that in the world of formulas and enrolment numbers and all of that stuff, if it comes down to a human decision … we just want to make sure we’ve done everything we can to make sure all the right people know how important it is,” Ladner said.
When contacted by the Advertiser, Stronach said she could not comment.
