Although our school claims a low rate of students forced out of first choice in their scheduling, more music students are affected than most departments. Concert Band once had 54 kids, today it’s 29, and Orchestra once had 43 kids, now it’s 11. At one point the program had 13 graduates going on to study music in a single year, and last year we only had 4 instrumental graduates. The Jazz Ensemble, which is extra and outside of the school day has 20 members, which demonstrates a clear interest. In past years, students played in prestigious venues such as the Lincoln center, and did multiple overnights, yet this year we couldn’t even get a bus for a field trip to a festival at Ithaca College. Many students find themselves either forced out of the music classes they want, or their preferred graduation track. This is even worse for students looking to gain a higher education in music that would likely qualify for merit scholarships. Music classes are often scheduled at the same time as AP and Honors classes. Most other schools do not have this problem in the same capacity. Many either have multiple music blocks or they schedule music classes before they decide the times of others. Both Columbia and Voorheeseville, which are of similar size solve this problem by scheduling music first. Every year, many students are forced out of their passion and many never find their way back. Our schedule policy artificially shrinks our Music Department.