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Parent tells school board new middle‑school schedule forces students to choose band over allied arts
Summary
At the July 14, 2025 Board of Education meeting a parent said a new middle‑school schedule automatically enrolls fifth‑grade band students in band for all three trimesters and limits allied‑arts sampling, which she said will force students to forgo other arts classes and may harm the music program.
Anna Benton, a parent of an incoming sixth‑grade student, told the Board of Education at the July 14, 2025 meeting that a new middle‑school schedule would require students who started band in fifth grade to be enrolled in band for all three trimesters, reducing time available for other allied‑arts courses. “With the new middle school structure, he would have to sacrifice all of the allied arts courses that he's extremely interested in,” Benton said during the public‑comment portion of the meeting.
Benton said she and her husband, both teachers in the district, were told that a fifth‑grade band student would be “automatically enrolled in band in sixth grade, and then automatically placed into 2 allied arts courses, art and Spanish,” and that the schedule left other allied‑arts options unavailable for sampling. She added that science and social studies appear to be scheduled for two trimesters, PE and allied arts for one trimester each, while band is scheduled for all three trimesters, and asked the board for the rationale for that balance.
The parent framed the concern as both a student‑opportunity and program‑health issue. She said the district’s music teachers are “amazing” and warned the current structure could cause the music program to suffer. Benton also said some families are already considering having their child give up band because of the schedule’s restrictions and emphasized that middle school is a time when students should be able to sample courses to discover new interests.
Her remarks were made during the community participation period; no board action was taken on the schedule at the meeting. Benton said she had reached out to “Mr. McBurney” to ask whether alternatives were being discussed and offered the family’s willingness to work with district staff to find solutions.
Why it matters: Benton said the change reduces opportunities for students to sample allied‑arts classes at a formative age and could affect both students’ ability to explore interests and the strength of the district’s music program going forward. The board did not vote or direct staff to change the schedule at this meeting.
The comment was the single community participation item on the agenda; no formal motion or vote followed her remarks.
