Declining enrolment and the resulting need to shuffle teaching resources has some worried that Elora Public School’s music instruction program is in jeopardy.
Upper Grand District School Board spokesperson Heather Loney said Friday the program will be preserved, but there may be a different teacher assigned to oversee it next year. Parents see that as part of the problem.
Lianne Carter, the Elora PS parent council chair, said a number of people in the community worry that the quality of longstanding and important program may be diminished due to the board’s need to reduce staffing at the school.
In an interview, Carter said if the highly qualified current teacher is transferred, another, significantly less qualified teacher will likely replace her.
"Sure, there might be a music program in the curriculum, but it would be pretty basic," Carter said. "There is no way that a regular teacher with no experience can run a music program like that."
Loney explained that Elora PS has a capacity for 487 students, but enrollment for next year will be down to 427 – an 87.7 per cent utilization rate. The board is obligated to work within the guidelines set out by teacher collective agreements and by the Ministry of Education when it comes to staffing schools, she said in an email.
“Staffing is allocated based on current and projected student enrolment,” she said. “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.”
She said members of the Elora PS community are concerned that the teacher of the instrumental music program may be transferred to a different school, due to that teacher’s level of seniority.
It is not a certainty that the teacher will be transferred, Loney indicated, given that teachers have the opportunity to transfer within the system, and there may be Elora PS teachers that choose to do so.
Carter said there is worry that teacher Kelly Stronach will be transferred, and not replaced. The program, she said, has been in place for several decades, and it has an inventory of musical instruments with a replacement value of about $100,000.
Over the past three years, fundraising in the community, coupled with school board allocations, amounted to a $24,500 investment in the program.
She said parents “want to salvage as much of the program as possible,” no matter what happens on the staffing side. There is a proposal to bring in qualified community instructors during the lunch hour and after school, and a fundraising campaign has started to support such a plan. Carter said the board's trustees seemed amenable to the extracurricular idea.
“We value the music programs being taught in our schools, and these programs will continue to be part of the curriculum,” Loney wrote, adding that a letter was sent to all parents and guardians to clarify the staffing process. A parent council meeting was also held on the issue.
Delegates from the community let the board know earlier this month that their overriding concern was to “ensure the quality of the school’s music program is maintained, regardless of the teacher in place,” Loney said. The school is noted for a high level of instrumental music instruction.
All schools have music as part of the curriculum, but not all have instrumental programs, which depend on things like the availability of instruments and the level of instruction available. Some school councils raise funds to pay some of the expenses of the programs.
Carter said Elora PS has "always taught well above the curriculum," and parents want that legacy to continue.
