Parents and music teachers urge board to restore eliminated Jazz 2 courses amid staffing freeze

Several parents and music educators used the public-comment period to urge the Richland School Board to reverse cuts to middle-school Jazz 2 programs they say were eliminated when the district implemented a hiring freeze.

Kevin Laws, director of band at Enterprise Middle School, told the board that the freeze eliminated contracts traditionally evaluated yearly, leading to termination of Jazz 2 teacher positions across the district. "Two weeks ago, we were told to confirm our Jazz 2 teachers...and then a week later we were told these positions had been eliminated," Laws said, listing reported Jazz 2 enrollment counts: about 50 at Libby Middle School, 55 at Chief Joseph, 56 at Enterprise, and 62 at Carmichael. He told the board that classes of that size cannot provide appropriate scaffolded instruction for beginning and advanced students.

Tony O'Conor, an elementary music teacher and parent, said placing students in single classes of 50-plus with widely varying ability will create an ineffective learning environment and strain concerts and festival participation. "Placing students in a class of 50 plus students with vastly different playing abilities and experience creates an ineffective learning environment for them," O'Conor said.

Parent Andrew Kirk described Jazz 2 as the middle-school JV program that builds a pipeline into high-school bands, saying eliminating the program could reduce future participation in high-school music and harm the long-term viability of those programs. "By disrupting the Jazz 2 program, you're disrupting that pipeline of young students picking up an instrument and then making it all the way through the high school programs," Kirk said.

Board members acknowledged the difficulty of preserving electives while managing reduced funding and said administrators are exploring alternatives, including rotational teaching models to maintain programming where possible. The board also noted that many extracurricular programs are funded by local levy dollars and that the district continues to face state and federal funding challenges.

What comes next: Board members asked building administrators to continue exploring staffing models to preserve music offerings and acknowledged the public comments for consideration during upcoming levy and budget discussions. No immediate reversal of the staffing decision was made during the meeting.