Parents, students and teachers urge Neshaminy board to reconsider music-staff realignment

Dozens of parents, students and music teachers urged the Neshaminy School District Board of School Directors on June (public comment period) to reconsider a staffing realignment that eliminates one itinerant instrumental music position and moves several music teachers between buildings.

The speakers, including parents, current district music teachers and high-school students, said the proposed changes would reduce student access to instrumental instruction, force caps on enrollment at some schools and disrupt feeder patterns that sustain middle- and high-school ensembles.

Valerie Graves, a Levittown resident and parent of two Carl Sandburg students, said, "If this position is removed, we're not cutting staff. We are closing a door on future musicians, artists, and dreamers." Graves told the board that music is "a lifeline for so many students" and urged trustees to "preserve this position. Preserve this program."

Carly Lewis, identified in public comment as a nine‑year district orchestra teacher, said the realignment would force the Fertibar orchestra program into a single day of instruction and "students will ultimately be turned away from this program." Lewis said the reassignment would cap enrollment at Fertibar and that administrators had told her to "wait and see" about fall recruitment numbers rather than providing a concrete plan before the school year.

Several student speakers described the program as essential to social and emotional well‑being. A student, Sophia Pail, said the district's choir director had supported her through personal health struggles and asked the board to "reconsider." Multiple other students described music teachers as the adults who helped them form friendships and persist in school.

Teachers and staff in the public comments detailed program impacts beyond single classrooms: Beth Senegoga, a Maple Point Middle School band director, said the district could not provide the enrollment thresholds or data used to justify losing an itinerant position and called for transparency about the metrics used to decide staffing.

Board members acknowledged the public comments during the board-comments portion of the meeting. A board member noted the community had "been heard" and said advocacy by parents and teachers had brought individual teacher assignments to the board's attention in a way that normally would not occur. The same speaker added that the administration and lead teacher would continue scheduling conversations over the summer to try to address practical issues raised by the public.

Superintendent remarks and several board members emphasized that the budget vote was necessary to keep district operations funded beginning July 1; they said failing to adopt a budget would halt payroll and operations. Board members also said the production of a final schedule and detailed staffing plan is an administrative responsibility and that the board would expect administration to work with lead teachers to resolve conflicts before the fall.

No formal motion to reinstate a position or rescind the staffing changes was taken during the meeting. Multiple speakers asked the board to either recruit to fill the itinerant position or to stop reassigning teachers outside their specialty; the administration and board committed to continued internal conversations and summer scheduling work.

The public comments covered specific local impacts: parents and teachers warned that moving a strings teacher from Fertibar to a different building would shrink the district's pipeline of string players and could reduce high‑school orchestra enrollment years later. Several parents and teachers listed extracurricular tasks and summer commitments that district music staff currently perform in addition to classroom time, and said spreading those duties more thinly would increase burnout and the risk of attrition.

The public-comment speakers and board responses left the issue unresolved at the meeting: the budget was adopted, which trustees said was necessary to maintain district operations, and the staffing realignment remained an administrative scheduling decision to be monitored and adjusted where possible.

Ending: Board members closed by thanking speakers for their advocacy and promising continued review during summer scheduling. The conversation on the music program, several members said, will continue into the summer and likely into the fall based on enrollment and scheduling outcomes.