Megan Acker: More Music In School Is Needed

My name is Megan Acker, and I am a life long Fulton native and have attended Fulton City Schools for my entire academic career. Recently, our Board of Education has announced that they will not be filling G. Ray Bodley High School’s choral position being vacated this year.

This has caused some discourse in the community, and I have written a letter addressed to the Board in attempt to voice some concerns… This is an issue that is very close to the heart of many Fultonians, and I believe it would be a great service to the community, as our Board has been rather discreet with the decision.

Dear FCSD’s Board of Education members,

I am reaching out to voice my concern regarding the decision to terminate the full-time chorus position at G. Ray Bodley High School. In the school year 2020/21 I will be beginning my eleventh year as a Fulton City School District student. As I have grown in this community, I have been blessed with many opportunities, including the opportunity to be taught something as sacred and integral to humanity as music. Our district’s music program has produced hundreds of extremely talented musicians, been an important factor for our student’s mental health, and generated some of the most well-rounded and successful pupils in the area. However, as I listened to the budget plan proposed on May 12th, 2020, and reiterated on May 19th, I felt I was listening to these opportunities slip away.

In eleven years, I have watched my options for musical education vanish. I have watched teachers be shuffled around schools, being forced to manage multiple ensembles spread across multiple buildings. I have seen broken instruments thrown away instead of fixed for lack of money to fix them, ensembles stuffed into smaller and smaller rooms to make way for other projects. I have been denied the chance to enroll in music classes as a result of my choice to participate in advanced courses, and known others who cannot participate in these courses as a result of their special needs in other academic areas. There are twelve music staff throughout this district. There are twenty-five ensembles. Many of these staff members also teach general music, music theory, instruct lessons, and/or conduct ensembles that meet outside of the school day. It was proposed that an existing staff member would teach all of the classes instructed by the current position, while instructing as much as possible at their current building as well. Whatever classes cannot be covered, are intended to be taught by another staff member from another building. This is inefficient. It is impossible for one teacher to manage two sizable choruses, two Music Theory classes, and an additional number of classes in a different building, without it taking a toll on themself, their ability to teach, and the accessibility of the class. This reduction is not a “modification”, it is detrimental.

In 2016, music therapist Molly Warren published an article on the National Alliance on Mental Illness’s website titled ?The Impact of Music Therapy on Mental Health. ?She explains the four major interventions that music therapy provides; Lyric Analysis, Improvisation Music Playing, Active Music Listening, and Songwriting. Warren describes how these activities can regulate mood, provide outlets for expression, encourage patients to work through complex emotions, and provide them the tools necessary to cope with difficult situations. All four of these techniques are provided by G. Ray Bodley’s current music program.

In the ?Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders Needs Assessments by DSRIP Region,? published by the New York State Office of Mental Health in 2016, Oswego County was registered as having 1,449 children per every 100,000 clinically treated for a mental disorder. An average 374 people enrolled in substance abuse treatment, daily. Here, suicide is the 8th most common cause of death.

Dozens of current music students have expressed concern that the failure to properly replace the position in question will not only impact their career options, but their mental health. The retiring staff member has been an integral figure in our community for decades. Without a full time instructor, we will be losing not only an academic resource, but an emotional support resource as well. The tie between mental wellness and music is indisputable. This instructor saw approximately 140 students a day, and met with a majority of those students outside of scheduled class time on a regular basis. Most importantly, the instructor was available for students to meet with before, during, and after the school day ended. This provided students a constant resource for all of their needs. A modified position cannot offer the same level of availability. The nature of this course is more connective than traditional studies, and there is a much more frequent communication between chorus member and conductor than between student and counselor. In the year 2020 alone, our community has lost two students, one to suicide. To reduce resources that are integral to mental health in our students is a disservice to said student’s memory.

In addition to the mental health impact music has, these programs also provide students with an academic advantage. In the graduating class of 2020 alone, we have several musical students graduating. All of these students are highly driven and high achieving, as are a majority of their peers pursuing a career in music. Music is an art form that constantly changes and challenges, requiring a never-ending amount of patience, self-discipline, respect, responsibility, communication, and a host of other skills important to being a well adapted member of society. Special curriculars have long been lauded as college admission board bait. Why, then, is a program so obviously beneficial being stripped from our district? Is it not G. Ray Bodley’s mission, “?to graduate all students as independent learners who adapt to change, contribute to society and lead healthy, rewarding lives”?

The relationship between music and academic achievement is clear. Harris Principal’s reported that schools with music programs had 17.3% higher graduations rates and an 8.4% higher attendance rate. In its 2019 assessment, students with the intent to major in liberal arts scored an average of 81 points higher than the average total test score. This trend has existed for years. According to SUNY data, in 2019, Oswego County residents made up a total of 0.9% of enrollments, despite Oswego county making up only 0.6% of New York State’s total population. Of this 0.9%, 5.1% of those enrolled were performing or visual arts students. Comparatively, students studying health and related fields constituted 5.3%. FCSD’s music program is one of the most impactful in the county. How would it affect college enrollments if this program were cut? How is it possible that G. Ray Bodley can envision itself as becoming, “the leading small-city high school in New York State”, while denying students the access to resources that are proven to keep kids in school, increase graduation rate, boost mental health, increase cognitive development, and encourage academic success?

On May 12th, our district’s enrollment rate was noted as dropping, with “50 less students a year” registering. Is it a coincidence that the quality and respect for our music program has followed a similar downward trend? The understanding that our Board does not have the intent to prevent student success is clear. However, to suggest that the failure to fill this position to its completion will have no effect on the program proves how removed the Board of Education is from the needs of our district.

Music classes render a completely different experience than any other program, and their requirements must be treated accordingly. This decision is a result of the Board’s failure to listen to the educators it employs and to understand the dynamic necessary for music education. This situation must be handled with the appropriate consideration. To go through

with this plan would mean to knowingly refuse students proper access to these courses and to deny them the mental, academic, and health benefits these classes provide. The difficulties facing students wanting to pursue music are already enormous. My peers and I already are forced to choose between specialized courses and our passions. The Fulton City School District’s Board of Education must acknowledge that to further cut back our music program, it would make the Board responsible for a possible decrease in mental wellness, as well as responsible for possible lower test scores, and a possible rise in absences. It will be responsible for a probable lower graduation rate, and graduating students who are less adapted for college and career experiences. While it is understandable that the Board is facing many fiscal challenges, to not fill this position would force the entire community to accept that music is unimportant to the district. It will be fulfilling a decades long national trend of cutbacks, underfunding, and understaffing, when there is an opportunity to change it.

The Fulton City School District’s Board of Education will make whatever decisions it deems necessary during this budget year. However, it must understand that with these decisions, comes responsibility, and consequences.

Sincerely,
Megan Acker
GRB Graduating Class of 2023