Students, Parents Protest District's Downsized Music Plan

When Moira McGevna walks into her band class at , she sees her fellow musicians reading college-level books before practice begins.

"They are crazy smart," McGevna, an eighth-grader and oboe player, told members of the Wall Township Board of Education at their meeting on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, seventh-grader Jill Gregorian credits playing in the band and music studies for helping her to raise her math grades.

"Since joining the band, I like math much more this year," the self-described former math-phobic told the board. "Music has helped me with it."

More than 20 intermediate and high school students, as well as district graduates and parents, stood in a long line to address the board over its proposal to downsize music instruction at the Intermediate School as a means of lengthening instructional periods.

Bringing students in early in the morning for ensemble rehearsals — a choice that would result in middle-school age children riding a bus with high school students — is unacceptable, many said.

Holding ensemble practices after school is also unacceptable, parents and students said, as that would interfere with sports, tutoring and other activities.

"If I were a year younger, I wouldn't be in the band this year," said eighth-grader Andrew Kosinski, adding that an out-of-school option would have discouraged him from participating.

However, both board President John Tavis and interim Superintendent Stephanie Bilenker stressed that no decision has yet been made on how to increase instructional time.

Ideally, the district would like to see 85 percent advanced proficiency when students take the NJ ASK assessments in the future.

The Intermediate School, along with Wall High School, has been designated a “School In Need Of Improvement,’’ by the state Department of Education — a designation given to schools that fail to make progress on standardized tests for two or more consecutive years.

However, one of two existing open 40-minute "academic support periods," has to be used for additional instruction in math and language arts.

"We have to make better use of the 40 minute period," Tavis said.

Surveys showed that some parents favor keeping one open period as a study hall for students to do homework, a choice Tavis dislikes.

"I don't agree with that," he said.

Tavis also pointed out that the music program, in which about 270 intermediate school students participated this year, is not the problem. Changing the schedule to find more instructional time is the issue.

Board members will meet with administrators in some of New Jersey's Blue Ribbon schools to find out how they have scheduled more instructional time for math and languge arts, and in turn raised NJ ASK test scores, Tavis said.

"Blue ribbon schools have longer instructional  periods," Tavis said.

The current plan on the table now calls for increasing instructional periods in math and language arts from 40 to 80 minutes for sixth and seventh graders and from 40 to 60 minutes for eighth graders according to Bilenker.

"We're still in the process of exploring other middle school schedules in other districts," Bilenker said in an interview prior to the meeting.

Kim Dixon, mother of a seventh-grader, urged the board to seek more input from parents as to the scheduling dilemma. She also criticized the board's use of a posted online that was full of technical glitches.

What matters is quality instruction within the given timeframe, not necessarily longer class periods," Dixon said.

"More isn't necessarily better," Dixon said. "Better is better."