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Letter: School Choir Program Cuts Planned

ChoirDear Fellow Parents,

It has come to our attention that the district is planning to make cuts to the choir program for the incoming school year. The rationale given has been that next year’s enrollment numbers do not allow for two choirs at each Junior High School and the plan will be one choir per Junior High combined with 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students. Mr. Zinn’s 1.0 FTE is being reduced to a .6 position.

As we all can appreciate, differentiated teaching can be difficult.Teaching beginning choir students presents different challenges than that of more mature 9th graders, many of whom who will be preparing for auditioning for DHS choirs next Spring. Though next year’s choir class sizes could be smaller than other subject matter classes, it has been demonstrated both this year and in the past that the school district has supported and offered smaller class sizes for choir.

We, as parents, feel it is our responsibility to advocate for our teens who love music and singing. The community supported a parcel tax to support the arts program and seeing a decrease in opportunities for our kids is both disconcerting and disappointing. The DJUSD School Board and leadership need to hear from the community if there are concerns. We are urging the district to consider 1) the long-term health and quality of the DJUSD choral program as Jr High School choirs are feeders and preparatory grounds for the renowned DHS choirs and 2) the differentiated needs of current choir students by offering 2 sections of choir at the Junior Highs in the fall.

Please consider emailing your school principal, Derek Brothers, Director of Personnel (dbrothers@djusd.net) and the DJUSD School Board (boe@djusd.net) so our voices, and our kids’ voices, are heard. You may also wish to read today’s Davis Enterprise article: “Davis Schools’ Music Program Wins Another Award” and add a comment or write to the editor: 
https://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/davis-schools-music-program-wins-another-award/
Also please feel free to share this letter and information with any other interested parents, community members or stakeholders. We definitely want to be inclusive but just started here with contacting those whom we know directly.
Thank you!

Deborah Folb
Jen Miller

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Comments

One response to “Letter: School Choir Program Cuts Planned”

  1. Sharla Cheney

    The students who make it through to the auditioned Choirs at the High School are those students who have private voice lessons and don’t rely on the Jr. High choirs to prepare them. The Jr. High choirs are fun and considered practice. Many students also sing in church choirs or private choirs. This is also the case for auditioned band and string groups. The students might benefit from a larger choir for three years rather than struggling through one year with a tiny choir of only 7th graders before joining the larger 8th and 9th grade choir.

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