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Parents, students urge board to preserve performing arts as district outlines extracurricular fee plan
Summary
Multiple parents, students and alumni urged the Hopewell Valley board to avoid cuts to performing arts staffing and to reconsider newly proposed extracurricular fees; students described Miss Cook as central to the district's dance and performing-arts programs.
At the board's May meeting, more than a dozen parents, students and alumni urged the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education to preserve the performing arts program and to reverse staffing reductions that would reduce teacher time and increase extracurricular fees.
Public commenters said proposed activity fees and staff reductions would harm music, theater and dance programs that serve students who do not participate in traditional sports. Heather Irishman, a parent, told the board that the performing arts helped her daughter leave “her shell” and warned, “Fine arts are gonna suffer big time” if cuts proceed.
Several students described the…
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