Greensburg Salem students protest music program cut as school board debates budget - TribLIVE

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Greensburg Salem students on Wednesday protested a proposed cut to the district’s elementary music program outside the middle school while district officials held a virtual school board meeting featuring a debate about those and other planned cuts.

Ryann Shirey, 16, of Greensburg, who will be a junior member of the marching band, argued that the district’s plan to eliminate instrumental instruction for elementary band members during the school day will have a damaging effect on band programs in higher grades.

“It will cause a decrease in the number of our band members,” she predicted. “In a few years, our entire band program is going to be just about nothing.”

Shirey formed a Facebook group, Student Advocates For Arts in Education, and collected 1,018 signatures opposing the music cutback in a door-to-door petition campaign. She garnered more than 13,000 additional signatures from across the country for a similar online petition.

Under the district’s 2020-21 proposed budget, a music teacher who pulled fourth- and fifth-grade students from their academic classes for instrumental lessons would be moved elsewhere to replace a retiring colleague.

According to Business Manager J.R. Dzurica, a potential 1-mill tax increase would allow the district to avoid most of the staff cuts but would add $17 to the tax bill of a household whose home has a market value of $118,000. An alternative 2-mill hike would add about $34 to the bill.

Dzurica recommended the school board not raise taxes and make cuts, as he’s expecting a 3% decrease in tax revenue because of the pandemic’s effect on the local economy.

The board is set to vote on a final budget June 29.

Superintendent Gary Peiffer has suggested creating a supplemental band position that would include after-school instrumental instruction for elementary students.

But school board member Lynna Thomas said that might not work for some families because of work schedules or lack of transportation.

“I remain concerned that we are not doing our community a favor with these cuts,” she said.

Board member Robin Savage said she has greater concern about a potential tax hike, noting that many residents have lost jobs or had their work hours reduced.

She pointed out that the district offers other extracurricular programs that involve after-school participation.

“Neighbors help each other if students don’t have transportation,” she said.

Other proposed cuts include furloughing two first-year teachers and not filling the position of a retiring elementary teacher. Instead, they would be replaced by moving a middle school librarian and two others that served three district elementary schools to classroom instruction.

A remaining high school librarian would rotate among the schools. All school libraries would remain open for use by students and teachers, but students would be able to take out books only on days when the librarian is there, according to Peiffer.

The district also proposes eliminating three instructional aides and a community liaison on the administrative staff. It also doesn’t intend to replace a retiring technology education teacher.

The various staff cuts and moves would result in savings of more than $570,000 and allow the district to avoid a potential 2.5-mill tax hike in 2020-21, according to figures provided by Peiffer.

“I regret that we have to propose any type of program curtailment, alteration or furlough,” he said. “The Greensburg Salem School Board, like many school boards across the Commonwealth, is forced to make difficult budgetary decisions in the face of this severe economic downturn now in order to maintain the larger economic viability of the district in the future.

Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff at 724-836-6622, jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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