A statement from CAPA’s current and former presidents on the Loker School proposal to cut the weekly small-group instrument lessons currently provided to 4th- and 5th-grade band and orchestra students.
Video link to School Committee meeting
Dear supporters of the fine arts,
We are concerned.
Last Wednesday at the school committee meeting, Loker School Principal Brian Jones proposed a pilot program to ELIMINATE music lessons at Loker so they can add science and social studies classroom minutes. We are aggrieved that he gave no data, no evidence that Wayland students are struggling in those subject areas, no informed reasons why music should be cut – only a nebulous “Elementary students get more music instruction than social studies and science combined. I don’t know what else to do.” Much to our surprise, the school committee didn’t challenge him at all. You can listen to their discussion starting around 1:10 on WayCAM.
Wayland has been recognized by the NAMM Foundation for 17 years in a row as one of the United States’ best communities for music education. Our high school orchestras, bands, and choral ensembles are robust and exceptional. We have a large representation in MMEA Eastern District and All-State Music Festivals and other competitions year after year. Many of our graduates go on to study music and perform at the college level AND, notably, to major in sciences! According to data from the Elpus Longitudinal Study from 2016, K-12 music students are more likely to apply to and attend college than their non-music peers, even when accounting for socioeconomic differences. Perhaps most importantly, we all know that music instruction is an essential part of educating the whole child and fostering their self-awareness, curiosity, creativity, responsibility, and discipline.
If this pilot program is initiated, all of that is at risk. Our 4th and 5th grade programs at all three elementary schools are the feeders. While the 45-minute ensemble time is not being cut, the 30-minute small group lessons are. Lessons are where kids receive individualized precision and technique instruction, which they practice in ensemble. While strings players start in 3rd grade, band members receive their foundational introduction in 4th grade, where they learn how to assemble and maintain their instruments for the first time. Without these lessons, students will become frustrated with their inability to keep up in ensemble. Without time for individualized corrections, they will feel embarrassed if they’re making mistakes in a large group setting. When frustrated and embarrassed, students tend to drop out of the program and forego the opportunity to grow and perform at higher levels in middle school and high school.
With Loker piloting this program, Loker students will be the first ones to drop. Once they arrive at the middle school and realize how far behind they are compared to their Claypit and Happy Hollow peers, there’s no question what will happen. Worse still, if this pilot becomes standard across all elementary schools, Wayland’s award-winning music program will fall apart. The only students likely to continue studying music are those whose families can afford private lessons. For a town that espouses striving for equity, this is a move in the wrong direction.
We need your help ASAP. Follow up meetings will be taking place as early as this Monday and we need to raise our voices before then. Please spread the word to alums and stakeholders you know. And please join us in emailing your concerns directly to the committee chairs of this initiative, betsy_gavron@waylandps.org and brian_jones@waylandps.org, as well as Superintendent david_fleishman@waylandps.org and School Committee Chair erin_gibbons@waylandps.org before Monday. Ask them to ditch this pilot, or at least to postpone it for a year to conduct further research based on data and outcomes and a reconsidered strategy. The current plan is to only evaluate whether teachers have more minutes to provide effective science and social studies instruction. They will NOT be looking at how music students and the music program at large are affected. We believe this is reckless oversight.
United in our unwavering support of Wayland’s outstanding music program,
Vickie Lai, CAPA President 2025-present
Amari Harrison, CAPA President 2023-2025
Colleen Morneweck, CAPA President 2022-2023
Mina Dietzius, CAPA President 2020-2022