To the editor:

I was shocked and saddened to learn that one of the proposed cuts for the school district involved sixth-grade band and orchestra. Is the school board aware that 85 percent of sixth-graders participate in instrumental programs? Sixth grade is the year that students choose an instrument and learn to read music. Smaller classes enable the director to give children the individual attention they deserve. If we put that on the junior high directors with nearly 100 clueless seventh-graders, the students and the music will suffer, even though the directors will be doing all that they can.

The effects of this cut will be more long-term because the majority of Kansas school districts have their students begin band and orchestra in the fourth or fifth grade. Lawrence students won’t be able to compete with students who’ve been playing two to three years longer. This handicap will plague them for the rest of their musical careers.

Free State High School and Lawrence High School have award-winning instrumental music programs. The loss of that crucial year will cause them to slip out of the No. 1 position no matter how hard the students and directors work to make up the difference. It is easy to fall, but building the programs back up would be a nearly impossible task.

I am a member of the Free State band. It has given me something to work for and be proud of. It has been a second family, and the thought of what might happen to it makes me cry. The band has had a huge impact on my life; it has given me confidence and taught me excellence. I don’t want that confidence to be taken away from the children of Lawrence.

I would like to ask the school board to please find another way to cut costs. Please don’t make the bands and the orchestras suffer for the financial shortcomings of the entire district. The music department touches nearly one-fourth of the students in the Lawrence school district. Please don’t take that away.

Karen Mayse,

FSHS senior