Boosters of Silverton schools music program want more resources

For many young musicians, fifth-grade band is a rite of passage. It entails handling instruments for the first time, learning to read music, and making a cacophony of strange new noises at home for nine months.

The loss of fifth-grade band in the Silver Falls School District has already hurt middle school band, and high school band will be the next to suffer, said a music specialist who surveyed the district last month. His numbers show middle school band dropped from 127 members three years ago to just 37 now.

“(The) enrollment decline in band grades 5-8 demonstrates the probable complete collapse of the high (school) band program within three years,” Dr. John Benham, author of “Music Advocacy: Moving from Survival to Vision,” wrote in his status report.

That wasn’t all. General music instruction is woefully lacking in nearly all the district’s 13 schools, most of them K-8 schools with no music classes at all, he said. Five teachers, working a combined 3.76 FTE (full time equivalent) offer all the certified music instruction to a district of nearly 4,000 students.

“It is obvious that there is an insufficient number of faculty to provide instruction to every school in the district,” he wrote.

School board members haven’t responded publicly to Benham’s report, which they received last month from the local non-profit Silverton Friends of Music. Neither did Supt. Andy Bellando participate in the music specialist’s survey.

“There’s never been a real willingness to work with us, and that’s why we hired Dr. Benham,"  said Sarah Weitzman, president of Silverton Friends of Music. "To help us mediate and facilitate … maybe even help us hear some stuff from the administration. But we were shocked when the administration responded with a complete shutout.”

Bellando said he was riled by the non-profit’s decision to invite an independent music evaluator into the district without first speaking with him about the idea. When Benham sent a questionnaire ahead of his visit and asked Bellando to complete it, he didn’t. The non-profit then resubmitted the questionnaire as a public records request, and he demurred again, saying public records law doesn’t require the district to generate new documents, only to release those already in existence.

More:Silverton Choir wins state title for second year in a row

Distillery:A new distillery from Silverton is already winning medals in national competitions

“Also, by the time I got the request, I had a week, then spring break, and I wasn’t going to put my teachers in a position to have to complete a survey,” Bellando said. “My teachers ask me all the time not to give them one more thing to do.”

Tom Buchholz, school board chair, said he supports Bellando in his decision not to spend time on the questionnaire.

“I’m OK with that,” he said. “They hired Mr. Benham before they even told Mr. Bellando they’d done that. If any group can go hire someone from outside to come in like this, the precedence is wide open. It sets very poor precedent.”

Benham said he’s never before run across a district that refused to release its music data, and that Silver Falls “could not legally refuse” it. He ended up preparing his report without assistance from administrators, stating after the fact,” This is an adult power struggle. It’s time to bury the hatchet for the sake of the kids.”

At school board meetings leading up to this spring, the relationship between Silverton Friends of Music and the board and administration appeared to grow strained. Since its inception three years ago, the group has advocated for music education, most recently throughout the 2019-20 budget process. It’s conducted fundraisers, hosted summertime concerts and established a children’s choir. Its members have been a constant and sometimes vocal presence at board meetings.

After the non-profit’s members read parts of Benham’s report to the school board on April 22, Bellando said he’s frustrated by the group’s requests for music programs that he can’t find money or instructional time to provide, while meeting mounting requirements from the state. He agreed with Benham that Silver Falls would benefit from a unified music curriculum but took issue with other findings.

“That claim about high school band dying is not true at all,” he said. “And, in general, this report shows an unwillingness to be flexible and cooperate to make things work … I’ve offered to find solutions that fit within the values and resources we have available to us in the school district.”

Weitzman disagreed: “Dr. Benham’s report mostly highlighted our inequities in our district, as well as the lack of curriculum. In addition, I don’t think we are actively trying to provide art and music to all, as is stated in the law.”

The district attempts to meet the state’s “arts” requirement by incorporating a variety of fine arts – not just music – into regular classroom instruction time, Bellando said.

He highlighted the school board’s recent decision to fund a half-time band director at Silverton Middle School, giving the high school its own fulltime band director, a goal that board members have sought to achieve “for years.” Also, for the first time, the high school will offer guitar classes.

He also recently allocated $60,000 for a half-time fine arts teacher to offer after-school programming “yet to be formed,” a move dubbed an “add-back,” contingent upon the passage of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s education budget.

Music offerings have varied widely among Silver Falls’ 13 schools, a reality that bothers Benham, an advocate for equal access to music instruction for all students. He’d rather see the district mandate, fund and organize music as a “centralized” program, as are counseling, special education and Talented and Gifted instruction.

Currently, individual principals have latitude to decide their school’s budget, a site-based funding model fairly unique to the Silver Falls School District. Outlying K-8 schools including Pratum, Victor Point, Central Howell and Silver Crest didn’t join the larger school district until state law required unification in 1996, much later than most other Oregon districts.

Individual school communities’ expectation of local control is one legacy of these long-running K-8 districts, and the district still leaves many funding decisions – including music instruction – in the hands of each. Pratum, for example, employs an instructor who teaches both PE and music. At Scotts Mills, the community recently cut back music to fund a half-time science teacher, Bellando said.

“The community has spoken, and we have site-based decision-making in our schools,” he said. “They want autonomy in decision-making.”

Silver Falls’ neighbor, Salem-Keizer School District, which serves 40,000 students, takes the opposite approach to music instruction. It employs a fulltime music and drama coordinator, who oversees the staffing of music teachers in all its schools, particularly K-5 buildings.

“This used to be the model in all districts. It’s not something we’ve created; it’s something we’ve protected,” said Mary Lou Boderman, coordinator.

Thus, all K-5 Salem-Keizer schools have general music; each student gets at least one hour per week. Many have orchestra, starting in fourth grade, and band and choir, starting in fifth. Middle schools and high schools offer band, choir and orchestra.

For instructional efficiency, Salem-Keizer schools use music classes to satisfy regular classroom teachers’ need for during-the-school-day preparation time.

“Sheltered prep time during the school day,” is a negotiated element in teachers’ contract, and sending students off to music class helps provide that, Boderman said. She also noted that music classes – especially performance groups such as orchestra – accommodate larger-than-normal class loads, a money-saver.