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Parents and students urge Prior Lake-Savage board to preserve choir and Spanish-immersion programs amid budget cuts
Summary
At a March 23 board meeting, parents, students and community members urged the Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools board to keep two high-school choir directors and maintain the secondary Spanish-immersion program as administrators prepare the 2026–27 budget.
At the March 23 Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools Board of Education meeting, a string of public commenters urged the board to preserve arts and immersion programs they said would be damaged by proposed 2026–27 budget cuts.
Michael Gillis, president of the Prior Lake Choir Boosters, told the board the district’s current plan would “reduce staffing at the high school from two choir directors to only one,” and asked the board to work with building administrators to keep both positions. Gillis said the two directors — referred to in public remarks as “Hahn and E” — are central to the choir’s national reputation and student scholarship outcomes.
Alumnus and coach Adria Hedrick said the choir program’s depth and community impact depend on the collaborative leadership of the two directors and that splitting them would make it “near impossible to achieve the same result with only one teacher.” Student Grace Galbus, a senior in the high-school program, told the board a petition started three days earlier had nearly 1,000 signatures and argued the program’s ensembles and curriculum would be sharply reduced with one director.
Separately, ninth-grader Gisela Dager and parents Rebecca and Richard Charts urged the board not to cut the Spanish-immersion pathway. Dager said pausing or removing an entire year of immersion “would set back students significantly,” and praised Senora Guzman as the first consistent immersion teacher the program has had in years. The Charts family described the district’s long-term investment in building the secondary immersion program and said recruiting qualified immersion teachers is difficult; they urged the board to prioritize classroom experiences over extracurricular activities if cuts are necessary.
The public comments took place immediately before the business portion of the meeting. Board members did not make any immediate promises to reverse specific staffing proposals during public forum; subsequent business items addressed budget-related decisions and negotiations.
The school board is scheduled to continue budget discussions and bring formal proposals for staffing and program decisions as the district finalizes the 2026–27 budget.
