In a recent effort to cut back budget spending, proposition #5 made by the Maercker District 60 School Board is to eliminate the position that provides beginning band to the fifth graders of Maercker Intermediate School, and to delay the start of band to sixth grade. The proposal not only removes a long-standing program that has brought joy and community together, but removes the 0.7 FTE, and transfers 0.3 of that FTE to create a full-time assistant director at Westview. In Net total FTE, the district is only losing a total of 0.4 FTE to eliminate the fifth-grade band program, with the remaining 0.3 given to create a new full-time position with salary and benefits. While that may sound nice for the person taking that upgraded position, this does very little to address the problem at hand, which is to reduce spending. By eliminating a part-time job without full benefits to create a full-time position with benefits, you take away less than half-time of FTE and add another full package of benefits to the budget. This is a short-term benefit to a long-term problem, and music education should not have to suffer for a budget mistake that could have been located in another department.

Keep Beginning Band in Fifth Grade at Maercker District 60. Say NO to proposition #5!