This comment came from Barbara Aran, a retired music teacher in Los Angeles:
She wrote:
This what I planned to say to the LAUSD Board on Tuesday December 17th, but couldn’t get in–this is what I would have said on that day:
My name is Barbara Aran. I am a retired LAUSD elementary teacher. Today I speak for the school communities of Wilshire Crest Elementary and Laurel Elementary schools.
Ladies and gentlemen:
Let’s describe an act of cowardice. An action taken as a clever sneak attack on the instrumental music program with no time to respond. The time line was as short as possible so that people would not know in advance.
Music instruments are being collected and removed from the students AT THIS VERY MOMENT AS I SPEAK TO YOU at these two schools with no prior notice to anyone in the school communities, or communication from the district or the arts branch. I found out about this situation on Friday because the two teachers at the schools are my friends and colleagues, and fellow chamber music performers, Ginny Atherton and Diane Lang.
Winter break starts next Monday, so it will be four weeks before anyone can respond to this outrage, a travesty against children, parents, teachers and the school communities. But particularly the injustice against children.
So I am asking for four actions from this board today:
An apology letter from the District to all stakeholders, including children, for how this has been handled—prior to the vacation.
Rescind this “very bad idea”
Expose WHO, WHY, WHEN, and HOW this decision was made (no one seems to know any of this—
Board resolution “no mid year changes for instrumental music, commitment for two semesters (full year) for instrumental music”. If only 3 semesters of arts per school, then schools should know that they can count on having it for the full year.
This devastating attack could not have been planned to be more emotionally devastating to the children and the school communities, to produce the maximum emotional distress.
Your actions or inactions today speak much louder than any meaningless words when you say that you support the arts and the music program.
These students are being deprived of an opportunity which they may not ever have again. They have done nothing wrong to deserve this treatment by adults. They will be devastated. Many are excited and buy into making music, an opportunity now lost, a broken contract with the parents, the students, the teachers and staff. Parents’ expectations for the education of their children are diminished. They expected the full education for their children, instrumental music not just vocal music. Note that the website for Wilshire Crest features a photograph of students playing music. Now this will be a lie.
This is an act of pure arrogance and shows a complete disrespect For the entire school communities of Wilshire Crest and Laurel elementary schools. It sets what kind of a model for the students? Educators are told to model behavior for the students. This is a shining example of how not to treat people. Furthermore, it erodes the ability of students, parents, teachers, and the rest of the school community to trust the authority of the district. Why should the students trust the adults if they are not trustworthy?
Lausd loans 54 instruments to each school and many parents rent or buy instruments in the expectation that their student will receive instruction at school. They make an investment in their children’s education. Parents who invested in this way expected that they would receive a full years instruction. Should they feel betrayed or just deceived? Established programs mean a lot to a school community. Additionally, schools buy instruments to supplement what the district provides, so the school also has an investment. At Wilshire Crest, this consists of percussion instruments and a complete set of Orff instruments, not a small investment. Who has control of the budget for each school? Isn’t the principal supposed to have authority over the budget? Why is this not transparent?
It is a pure act of cowardice to lack the common decency, at the very least, to send the parents, staff, principals and students notice and explanation for this action, leaving instead the blame to land on the shoulders of the music teacher who has done nothing wrong. Steve Zimmer is the board member for Laurel, and Marguerite LaMotte was for Wilshire Crest. Surely Ms. LaMotte, an advocate for the arts, would have been very upset for the students. In her memory, this should be corrected as much as possible before the winter break. (This situation is exactly why her seat on the board needs to be filled ASAP by appointment.)
On Monday December 9th, Diane Lang was informed of this action. Her assigned day at Laurel Street is Friday. On Friday (December 13) she went to the school but could not inform the principal who was in an all day meeting off campus. She did inform the students that they will need to bring instruments this coming Friday to be returned.
On Wednesday, December 11th Ginny was informed. Ginny’s assigned day is Tuesday; therefore the students and parents have been unaware of the situation until today, it was six days… The principal at Wilshire Crest, Ms. Taylor, was only informed of this via an email and a phone call on Monday December 9th, and she let Ginny know in an email that she had been blindsided by this. This morning, I received a phone call from Jocelyn Duarte, president of the Wilshire Crest Elementary PTA, she is also furious, and told me that I do indeed speak for the school community.
I also have an email forwarded from Eloise Porter (LACESMA) after Ginny and I spoke to her last night: I will read some parts of that:
“The elementary instrumental music program has never been an ‘introduction to instruments’ program, but rather a sequential learning experience building to elementary orchestra and on to middle and high school bands and orchestras. The School Board passed a resolution the establish the arts as a core subject. In addition, they asked Deasy to provide a budget to support restoration of the arts program to 2008-9 levels. This recent action is definitely NOT the way to do it. To destroy established instrumental programs in Title I schools in the middle of the school year seems especially egregious, unnecessary, and totally ineffective in delivering music education.”
So the school communities should know that they are playing roulette with the population count due to Norm Day, if that actually is the trigger—which is unknown due to complete lack of communication. Wouldn’t this be part of Title One? If this is part of a school’s budget, isn’t there a process which must be approved by school committees? and changes also?
There is no time to respond. The speed in this time line implies a sneak attack. Just prior to winter break, so cannot communicate directly to anyone in authority. Scrooge couldn’t have planned it better.
(Cockroaches run when the light shines)
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Study after study has linked learning about music to higher order thinking skills and the maths. What are they thinking?
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Clearly they weren’t thinking at least not the higher order kind. They were probably denied music lessons as children.
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They are thinking $$$$$ to pay for the next stupid, unproven predatory reform…
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I hope this retired teacher sends her letter to all the newspapers in CA.
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Amen!
So whose job is getting canned as a result if this? You don’t just dissolve a program without reassigning or canceling professional duties.
Will those instruments end up on eBay to bring in revenue to the district! Each one might buy a half of an iPad.
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(That second to last statement was meant to be a question.)
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Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé.
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LAUSDeasy what have you done to our children and our tax money?
http://www.examiner.com/article/lausdeasy-what-have-you-done-to-our-children-and-our-tax-money
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Taxpayers, this is part of the all out attack on public education by Deasy and his board. The shock doctrine of instituting a rapid, shocking change and move on it before any effective opposition can be made. This has characterized all of this administration’s decisions. We need to terminate this leadership of our district and take control of our schools.Please remember this when these people come up for reelection. The fact that the board would renew this superintendent’s contract despite opposition from teachers, parents and the community shows who their master is. We need to move on a recall or whatever now, let’s get rid of these politicians who have sold us out.
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When politicians usurp the rplace of educators, child psychologists, and scholars – people who have been there, done that, this is what can be expected.
In Indiana we are faced with a state school board which thinks they know more than the people who have been there, done that and are faced with the same kinds of ignorance and yes, stupidity that is being found elsewhere.
Quo Vadis: Where are we headed? Frightening, counterproductive, ad nauseum.
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There is an ongoing battle about the role of the LAUSD Board of Education. Monica Garcia has stated that the board does NOT make policy. So, she is quite happy with allowing the superintendent to take full control. I wonder if she would feel the same way if the superintendent did not represent her personal views????
In this case, Deasy’s LA Fund for Public Education created an arts plan that was clearly an attempt to fool people into thinking that implementing arts integration would somehow increase student exposure to the arts while saving money. But, since classroom teachers are not arts specialists and certainly do not have the time to prepare all new lessons with the added costs of materials, it remains a mystery as to how this would really address the continued removal of arts teachers along with the shrinking budgets for the instrument repair shop.
What we have to remember is that Deasy had a plan from the day he joined LAUSD. Everyone knew that Superintendent Cortines was about to retire, so it was obvious that Deasy was hired to be his replacement. Deasy then immediately launched his technology plan and accepted corporate funding of several administrative positions that were meant to support the development of the plan.
But what is completely missing in the plan is how the district will fund replacement of devices and ongoing costs of maintenance and professional development. Well, maybe he’s looking at ways to trim the general fund, since he will no longer be able to access construction bonds. Could he be eyeing the arts program as a cost saver? Could he be waiting in the wings for the state voter approved Local Control Funding Formula(LCFF) to start supplementing the general fund? Could he be thinking that there will suddenly be more money in the budget that he could tap for technology instead of using it to improve services for our neediest students? After all, Deasy thinks that having an iPad is a civil rights issue that trumps every other student need such as reasonable class size, librarians, counselors and nurses.
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Excellent post! every year the LAUSD budget cuts the arts, nurses, librarians, counselors, psychologists, and attendance. Every year they try to get rid of preschool and adult ed. Adult ed was decimated, a program which serves to parents or our students. What madness!
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As an active parent in LAUSD, I hadn’t heard about this, but nothing surprises me anymore. I’ve watched the arts take a hit year after year (and that’s assuming that one believes that having classroom teachers incorporate art into their lessons to varying degrees constitutes ‘teaching’ the arts). My son has a little over one year left before he (hopefully) graduates. After more than a decade of active but often fruitless advocacy on behalf of students in TRUE public schools, I’m discouraged.
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This plan of Deasy’s to plunder every program such as art, special education with full integration, electives, is folly. He and his compliant board seem perfectly willing to dissolve public education in favor of private, corporate control. They have been trying to break up the district for a long time, how perfect to give access to greedy privateers and corporations to accomplish this goal. How is it that we have a publicly elected board of education that refuses to govern the public school system. If they believe in following the dictates of the superintendent, what use are they. The public could just hire a school superintendent at less cost than maintaining 7 board seats. In this era of downsizing and giving public schools to charters, I propose eliminating the BOE and electing a superintendent.
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In theory, or at lest the way it used to be, the superintendent reported to the board. Of course he still reports–reports what he’s going to do and them they rubber stamp it!
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Let them play on their iPads!
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Deasy would respond except that he is too busy hiding from the I-Pad fiasco! How disgraceful! These actions become ever-so-transparent and regrettably more and more frequent these days.
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Higher grade teachers tell me that the students I taught as first or second graders can still sing the songs they learned in my class about various topics such as the water cycle.
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WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS?
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what indeed, sozo?
Why is this continuing to go on?
We parents of LAUSD are just waaaaaaaay too passive.
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