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Faced with the possibility of losing one of their beloved music teachers, several Lawrence Middle School students attended the Tuesday, Feb. 15 Lawrence school board meeting to convince the board to save his job.
During a school board work session on Feb. 1, Lawrence Middle School Principal Dr. Mark Kavarsky recommended to cut four faculty members from the proposed 2005-06 budget, including music teacher Barry Weiner. Kavarsky also recommended cutting two sixth-grade teachers and one guidance counselor from the middle school budget. The school's 2005-06 budget is expected to be reduced by 2.5 percent, or $178,670, from the current budget, according to Kavarsky, who was not in attendance for the Feb. 15 meeting.
Weiner has taught at the school for a short time, but has had a major influence on his students, they said. One of Weiner's students, Eliza Uster, spoke about how the young music teacher gave her the confidence to be able to sing before large audiences at Cedarhurst Park this past year.
"He really shaped me," said Uster, who joined many other students in lining up during the public-comments portion of the meeting to urge the board to retain Weiner.
"I've learned so many things that I've never learned before in music," student Donna Miller said during the meeting.
School Board President Kathy Raquet had initially requested that no comments or questions be directed about the budget, since the next three meetings will be devoted to the budget, but with the myriad of students and parents lining up to support Weiner, Raquet allowed them to speak. In a phone interview, Raquet emphasized that the board has not recommended any cuts for next year and that it was too early to project what will happen.
"Once we have everything together, we'll put it all together and make a final decision," said Raquet.
Lawrence Superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons stressed at the beginning of the meeting that the music program was not in jeopardy, even though there could be some cuts in staffing and some reduction in resources to it. "To my knowledge even in our preliminary stages there has been no discussion of our current music program being taken away," said Fitzsimons.
Despite no final decision having been made, Wayne Axman, who has two sons in the district's music program, urged the board to abandon any thought of possibly cutting the music teacher. "This is a preemptive strike," Axman said of the large turnout of students and parents in support of Weiner. "I implore you to not even consider it."
Many of the students in attendance at the meeting handed out fliers that said "Save the music program." A bid was made to hang them up in the middle school the previous day, but they were stopped by school officials. In response to complaints by some students and parents about being forced to take down the fliers, Fitzsimons explained that no First Amendment rights were violated because, he said, the information on the fliers were incorrect since the music program is not in jeopardy.
"We are not violating rights when information is being put up that is inflammatory," said Fitzsimons. "It is information that is misleading."
Parent Daniella Degrin lashed out at district officials, saying that she felt their First Amendment rights were violated. "We're fighting in Iraq for our freedom and we're teaching our kids to be cowards," Degrin yelled during the meeting.
The board is exploring a 3.5 percent budget increase for 2005-06, which is just 0.26 percent higher than the 3.24 percent increase under a contingency budget for next year, according to Deirdre Gambino, assistant superintendent for business. District officials have said that in order to maintain all current programs and faculty, the board would have to adopt at least a 7 percent increase for next year, but the board is aiming for half of that in order to have a realistic chance of passing next year's budget and avoiding a third straight year on contingency.
One student shouted from the crowd, "We need 7," in reference to the percent increase the district would need to maintain all programs and teachers.
The middle school's enrollment is expected to drop by about 40 students, from 759 to 719, with the average class size rising from 22 to 24, the number of classes decreasing from 34 to 30, in addition to a staff reduction of four, according to Kavarsky.
The next three school board meetings, on March 8, March 22 and April 5, will be devoted to discuss the 2005-06 budget, according to Raquet. The board is scheduled to adopt its proposed budget at the April 20 school board meeting with a budget hearing set for May 3. The public will vote on whether to approve the proposed budget on May 17.
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