Sharing the Word

As mentioned earlier today, we once again made the headlines in our local paper. Here's a link to the story: http://www.wilsontimes.com/News/Feature/Story/33178639---Push-intensifies-to-save-band We do want to point out one very important fact. The story reads, in part, as follows: "On Tuesday, Bulson attributed the staffing change to not having enough students enrolled in the instrumental music program at Beddingfield to justify a full-time instructor." Mr. Green did not only teach instrumental music at Beddingfield. He also taught Music Appreciation/History and IB Music. His teaching schedule matched those of all of the other teachers at Beddingfield. So, in addition to the school losing a teacher for the instrumental music classes, they have also lost a teacher for those classes as well. Mr. Green was not a part-time teacher on a full-time salary. There are larger numbers of students enrolled at Speight for 6th grade band for the coming year due to the decreased number of electives being taught. That is wonderful!! They should hire a full-time band director -- but, they should not destroy the program at Beddingfield by downgrading it to a part-time position in the process. That is the point that we want to convey. Not a single supporter of the band program wishes for there to be fewer students enrolled in band at any of the schools. We want desperately for the program on the Speight/Beddingfield side of the county to grow and prosper to the point that it was back in the 80s. Creating a larger program at Speight without a program for those students to move to at Beddingfield is building a bridge to nowhere. That is the bottom line. We are hearing from the posts on the Wilson Times website that people cannot find the link to the petition. Please, please share it, share it, share it on your Facebook pages, via email, via Twitter, or any other network that you have available. Thank you to everyone for all that you are doing!