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Parents and instructors plead with McPherson board to preserve middle‑school orchestra as district eyes $1.75M savings
Summary
Parents, a private instructor and students urged the McPherson USD board to keep the middle‑school orchestra program after administrators said the district is targeting $1,750,000 in savings and has included the orchestra as one of several potential reductions.
Several parents, a private instructor and a middle‑school student told the McPherson Unified School District board they would be harmed if the district removes the middle‑school orchestra program.
Leah Boggs, who identified herself during public comment, said the orchestra matters to her seventh‑grade daughter and that losing a final year of instruction would be "devastating" because the family cannot afford private lessons. "Orchestra to her is incredibly important," she said.
Deborah Spencer, who introduced herself as a local private string instructor, described a decline tied to inconsistent staffing and urged the board to retain at least one orchestra teacher. "If you could keep just one teacher for the orchestra program, I would highly recommend Angela Cal," Spencer said, citing Cal’s strong performance while long‑term substituting.
Superintendent Dr. Vincent told the board that the orchestra had been included in preliminary savings estimates while emphasizing no final recommendation had been made. He said the district’s current target is $1,750,000 and that identified savings to date are roughly $1.25–$1.3 million. "Those projected savings about $70,000 per year is something that the board will have to be cognizant of if and when we were to choose to move forward," he said.
Board members pressed for data and asked administration to explore whether existing staff could absorb orchestra duties or whether posting the position now would attract candidates. Dr. Vincent said staff are collecting student interest data from fifth grade through high school and expect to return to the board with a more concrete analysis in April.
The board did not take formal action on the orchestra at the meeting; trustees asked for more information about enrollment projections, potential in‑house solutions, and community input before deciding.
The next procedural step is for administration to return with detailed enrollment and staffing scenarios to inform any decision about the program.
