Oct 2, 2014 3 min read

Supporters of the Trinity Area School District’s music program turned out at Thursday’s school board meeting to voice their concerns over the future of the program and the high school marching band.

Specifically, parents told administrators and board directors they are worried the board plans to curtail the music curriculum and band program in an effort to alleviate the district’s financial woes.

Prompting parental concern was a change at the beginning of the school year in the schedule of elementary music teacher John Turek, who also took on duties as the co-director of the high school marching band in August, following the resignation of high school music teacher and band director Matthew Stultz.

Because of Turek’s additional responsibilities, individual band lessons are no longer offered at the elementary level.

Specifically, noted one parent, clarinet and flute players have been combined into a woodwinds class.

“I could liken it to saying we’re going to have a science class, but three kids are going to study biology, three are going to study physics and three are going to study chemstry, and we’re only going to have one teacher in the class,” said Nancy Bryant of Canton Township. “My concern is if you could please look at how the elementary is being staffed. I’m not sure that one basically part-time person to staff the four elementary buildings is working. I think on paper, at first, it looked like it was going to be pretty smooth, but in practice I don’t think it’s maybe going quite the way that everybody intended and the way everybody thought it was going to work out.”

The board hasn’t announced any plans to eliminate the band program or to cut music education, and school nurse Melissa Emery-Gillo, who is president of the teachers’ union, said she has heard “nothing but support from directors about the band.”

However, South Strabane Township resident Lane Turturice, who attended a finance committee meeting earlier in the week, said at the board meeting, he believes some of the directors “might be in favor of permanently and negatively curtailing the music curriculum and programs in this district – which, as I understand, could result in the elimination of the marching band.”

Another parent said elementary band students recently dropped out of the program, and parents are concerned more will do so.

Director Kerrin McIlvaine said rumors the board was considering doing away with the band program were “mistruths and misinformation.”

“No one indicated in any way that we were curtailing or doing away with the band program. That was your perception,” McIlvaine told Turturice.

Superintendent Michael Lucas said the school district has no plans to eliminate the band program, and Turek and Gordon Lowry will continue to serve as band directors, which is a cost savings to the district.

“We have great pride in our band program. We support it,” said Lucas. “It’s a strong tradition at Trinity that we plan to uphold.”

The current music model doesn’t offer individualized band lessons at specific times, but it also is a cost-saving measure.

“We’re $4 million in the hole. If there’s a cost savings anywhere, then it’s an area we’re going to have to look at until we can make up $4 million,” said Lucas.

In another matter, the school board authorized Lucas to hire a private investigator to investigate a questionable student residence issue and to seek reimbursement of education costs and investigator fees from anyone who misrepresented the student’s status.