Chorus of frustration after White Bear Lakes schools axes popular fifth-grade orchestra
WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minn. -- Parents are hoping to turn up the volume on White Bear Lake Area Schools after the board decided to cut an elementary orchestra program.
Supplemental materials from a March 27 Work Session showed the decision to end the fifth-grade orchestra, as well as the partnership with MacPhail Center for Music, was related to budget adjustments for the next fiscal year. A district spokeswoman, however, told WCCO News the move was instead based on a review of school curriculum.
"While Orchestra is a valued program in our district, results of the community survey clearly showed a higher priority is placed on other elementary specialist areas," the district wrote in an email. "Because the finding was obvious, the district made the decision to move forward for this fall with a change to begin offering orchestra in sixth grade rather than in fifth grade, which is in line with when the district's choir and band offerings begin. This allows us flexibility in elementary specialist offerings to better align with areas that emerged as priorities."
An online petition to restore the orchestra has garnered nearly 800 signatures, and supporters argue as many as 300 fifth-grade students -- half the class -- play in the orchestra.
"For some students, it gives them a reason to get up in the morning to come to school," Will McBride, a White Bear Lake parent, explained to WCCO. "Sometimes the arts are overlooked as something not critical. It is. It makes us human and who we are."
Last year, White Bear Lake Area Schools won a state award from the Minnesota String and Orchestra Teacher Association.
The board meets again for a work session on April 24.