December 17, 1999

Dear Editor,

12/16/99
To: SMMUSD Board members, other CA elected officials and additional interested parties.

From: Edward Korvin, musician and Emmy Award winning composer.

Please do not vote in favor of additional $$$ cuts for the school music program. The teaching of music is essential for building a strong creative and organizational foundation. Learning to play and read music exercises the mind and stimulates the human spirit. Documented reports have shown that the study of music improves the skills children learn in Language Arts and Mathematics and impacts on raising test scores.

Come on Santa Monica! America is being dumbed-down enough. As difficult a concept as it may seem, our children need the democratic availability to be able to learn to play and read music. Support the tireless teachers and volunteers! Support the true meaning of Higher Education!

Do Not Cut Music Funds!

December 16, 1999

Music is Important to Me Because...


Music surrounds me, it envelopes me. Music colors my world. Everyday sounds are music. From the sound of someone walking, tap, tapping down the street, to traffic noises, the rustling of a leaf,
the rain, the cacophony of human voices talking in a crowd. Some soft, others loud, and some
murmuring coos of love. Music allows me to express my feelings. I am grateful for the ability and
opportunities to express myself musically. When I pick up my french horn, I¹m moved to extend myself to technical perfection and become one with the music. When I¹m successful, I feel a sense of
accomplishment, beauty, and wonder. When I sing, it takes over my body and we become a harmony - my body, my voice, and mind.

The last notes linger. Into the air the notes sigh, Echoing our souls.

Music has taught me some of the lessons of life. Learn your part, do your part. When everyone comes together and gives their utmost, something wonderful happens. Working together, we create a
symphony of melody, harmony, and counterpoint. Practice, self-discipline, patience, and passion
are the ingredients to life and music. Disappointments and set-backs seem insurmountable, but with patience and practice, it works itself out. Music is important to me because it embodies culture, history, and personal  memories. I distantly remember my dad singing the ³Sesame Street² song with
me. I know summer nights spent dancing to Japanese odori dance music and taiko drumming in the streets of Los Angeles that recall 100 years of tradition in the United States. Francis Scott Key¹s
³Star Spangled Banner² was a real event inspired by the War of 1812. The ³Titanic² music defines a
history, tragedy, and era that searches for the grandeur of the past. Music is wonderful for itself. The music binds everyone together to make a better, happier world. In the end you cannot comprehend how much music is a part of you and your life. Music unifies and binds you to your family, friends, your community, and the world forever.

I am the grand prize winner of the fourth annual UCLA Wind Ensemble essay contest in November 1998. This was sponsored by UCLARTS and Dr. Thomas Lee (UCLA Director of Bands). The essay above represents my feelings toward music and how it has impacted my life.

I am a product of the Santa Monica Unified School District's music department. Currently I am attending Santa Monica High School. Through this program, Dr. Angela Woo (Director of instrumental music at John Adams Middle School) and Mrs. Cecile Blanchard (Director of choral music at John Adams Middle School) direction, I have been given many opportunities to discover the creative and artistic part of my life.

Ever since the beginning of mankind, music has been used to tell stories and pass down history. Music is just as important to civilized life as mathematics and language are. Music in elementary school is important to developing a whole person.

No one knows who the next Mozart and Beethoven will be. And we may never know if that person is not exposed to music as a serious subject. What will the world be deprived of if this child, this person, is not exposed to music just because his/her school did not offer music as an elective?

I believe it is important for music to be offered in public schools because the students that go to public schools may not have resouces available to them for private instruction, unlike the students who can afford to go to a private school. This is a perfect example of cultural elitism.

Why are only the "rich kids" given the opportunity to explore music as a serious subject? Everyone should be given an equal opportunity. That's the goal of public schooling. Isn't it? I would hope that when budgets are cut, you will keep my letter in mind and realize the value in music education and think of the students that will be affected, like me. Thank you.

---Laura Reynolds

December 16, 1999

Dear Board Members,

I was disturbed to hear that funding for the district's music programs is in jeopardy. My wife and I are the parents of 9 children and 10 grandchildren.

We don't live in Santa Monica but we have been very close to Santa Monica to more than 30 years. We own over one hundred apartment units in Santa Monica and many of our tenants are families with children in the schools.

Our children all learned to swim at the City Pool and most were life guards and instructors at the pool. I spent 15 years helping the Morgan-Wixson Theatre produce Musicals and over the years all of my children performed in those musicals. For the last 7 years my eldest son and I have been members of the Santa Monica Oceanaires - a men's barbershop chorus affiliated with the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singings
in America (SPEBSQSA).

Music has been an extremely important part of our family life and our family, including all of our children and grandchildren, just put on our 30th annual Thanksgiving musical performance for our family, friends and neighbors. I was fortunate to grow up in Santa Barbara where we had lots of music in Junior High School and High School. I sang in the choirs and played in the band and that training and discipline, along with the skills I learned, has been an extremely important part of my life ever since.

My son and I now sing with the Master of Harmony, a four time international championship, 135 member, men's barbershop chorus and have had the pleasure of singing with them all over Southern California, in Seattle, Salt Lake City, Indianapolis and Ireland.

I am an attorney but the musical background provided by my schools has been as important as any other part of my education in helping me live a fulfilling and satisfying life and music continues to play an important part in the lives of all of our children and of children everywhere.

The International Barbershop Society recognizes the importance of music in the lives of young people and they are devoting significant resources and manpower to provide encouragement and opportunities for young men and women to learn about and participate in quartet and chorus singing.

I have always read with pleasure and envy about the award winning musical groups at SaMo High and implore you to use every means available to you to continue funding the music programs in the Santa Monica School District so that all of the students in Santa Monica will be the recipients of the life long benefits that come from exposure to and training in the musical arts. Respectfully,

Robert & Claire Heron
Los Angeles

December 16, 1999

Dear Superintendent Schmidt and Board Members:

Cutting the music program is the dumbest idea I've heard since you tried to charge children for using school playgrounds, and if you remember, that didn't work--parents wouldn't stand for it. We won't stand for your cutting our music programs either. In a time of shrinking enrollments, perhaps you ought to aim for keeping the great kids you have, many of whom are involved in the music program. Learning music for its own sake is an essential part of every child's education, let alone all of the ancillary benefits to children, the proven benefits to brain development, the discipline acquired by practicing, the pleasure of being part of a community of dedicated musicians. Whatever made you think music education and art education are frills? How about cutting expensive athletic programs like football, and replacing them with less expensive programs like soccer? Add up all those pads and uniforms for football, and I'll bet it comes to a pretty penny. Is the football program essential, or available to all students of every size and gender? Hardly, but I don't even see it being considered.

Ironically, we live in Santa Monica and withdrew our two children (8 years and 11 years old) from Santa Monica schools five years ago and put them into an LAUSD charter school, which we thought promised greater educational reform. Now we have moved our older son back to Santa Monica, to John Adams, in great part because of the fine JAMS music program, and you are going to cut the heart out of it by destroying it source--the elementary music program.

If you want to see what kind of a program you'll get after a few years of eliminating school district support for a music program, you can visit my younger son's charter school, Marquez Charter School in Pacific Palisades, where there are perhaps 20 students in the orchestra--out of a student body of more than 600 children. Ironically, more Santa Monica parents than Pacific Palisades parents support the music program by providing their children with private music lessons--we are among the parents who are fortunate enough to be able to do so. But a music and art education should be available to children of all socio-economic groups, just as mathematics and science are, and that can only happen with your support.

Music and Art are not frills in education--they are the very heart and soul of a complete education. Cut something else, or better yet, make your/our district a little more parent-friendly, so that families like ours don't flee for years at a time.

Sincerely,

Tiiu Lukk
Parent of David Litwak (JAMS 6th grader) and Michael Litwak (Marquez Charter
School 3rd grader)

December, 15 1999

Dear School Board,

I am writing to let you know that I think it is essential that you figure out a way NOT to cancel the music program at the elementary school level!!!

My daughter began in the program in fourth grade, and now, in seventh grade she is really at an advanced level with her instrument. My son has just begun, and loves it already. The older a child gets, the harder it will be to start an instrument.

Don't undermine one of the very best things about the SMUSD by cancelling the music program at the elementary level. If it doesn't begin at that age, the students will never reach the level of proficiency that they have in the past!!!! I'm sure you guys will figure out a way - corporate sponsorship would be better than closing down the program.

Sincerely,
Sonya Sones

December 15, 1999

TO: SMMUSD School Board Members and Superintendant Schmidt

Dear Friends,

Let me add my voice to the many asking you to please reconsider any decision to make drastic, wholesale cuts in the elementary music program in our district. We who care deeply about the arts in Santa Monica know you have heard all the good reasons for building up, rather than cutting back, that program. Concerned parents from all the school music support organizations (band parents, orchestra parents, PTA, etc.) have spoken at your meetings.

The District Advisory Commitee for the Arts Music Subcommittee, at the request of Superintendant Schmidt, worked long to help hone a solid plan for sensible phase-in of the long-absent Elementary General Music Program, and provided recommendations to staff and all the documentation and rationales you need to justify implementing that program. You know the educational and developmental benefits for the children.

You know the cultural benefits for our community. You know our Samohi Orchestra made us all proud this week in Chicago. We know that you get it, that we don't have to make the case all over again now, and that you really don't want to make these cuts. And nobody envies you the job of making cuts in general; it can't be any fun.

For me, the scary thing about proposed cuts in music programs is that the elementary general music program is not something fat and long-standing, but a tender beginning at restoring something that was part of our district's cultural strength before Prop. 13 and was lost for a long time. This of all things needs to be nurtured, like a reforestation effort. One other point: You know that providing
instrumental training in elementary public schools democratizes what would otherwise (due to the cost of instruments and private lessons) be a purely elite activity.

But elementary general music instruction is even more equitable: It makes exposure to this art available for all kids, who are ready to sing and learn about music at a much younger age (and, later, for the kids who may not be willing or able to commit to the extra work of learning an instrument).

So I ask you to reconsider, both the staff decision to drop the first baby step at restoring elementary general music (already accepted but surely reversible), and the proposal now to cut the elementary
instrumental program.

Parents and kids want and need music (and art). Families move to Santa Monica to have their kids in our public schools in part because of the arts and, in particular, the music program. It is part of the quality of education here, and of the quality of life in our community. It can thus be predicted that if this flourishing rosebush gets hurt by cuts at the roots, there will be even more drops in enrollment. People will look elsewhere. Why trigger that response?

I ask the board instead to do the following:

1. Consider the arts and music programs, and in particular the elementary programs, as protected and worth preserving if humanly possible--and make this generally known, as policy..

2. Look across the entire budget of the district for equitable but moderate percentage cuts, in all areas, not just instruction, and especially in larger programs and other discretionary programs, rather
than lopping off low-hanging fruit and limbs entire. (This would also avoid setting constituencies for various programs in competition for survival).

3. Ask the Superintendant, before the January budget meetings, to articulate and pursue a fully-realized vision for the vigorous integration of the arts into the district's curriculum, so as to end
forever their history of remaining marginalized as "non-curricular" and thus automatically vulnerable whenever a quick fix is required for budgetary shortfalls. 4. Ask staff to look for ways to sharpen their enrollment forecasting function, whether it be by hiring consultants who specialize in this (thousands of school districts nationwide, after all, regularly have the same burden), using the latest software, or allocating more staff to the task. Then empower them to follow through. It has been suggested that this shortfall could have been predicted, and our reaction planned more thoroughly.

Respectfully,

David Avshalomov
JAMS and Samohi music parent
Composer/Conductor; DAC Music Subcommittee member

December 15, 1999

Dear Board Members:

We are writing to oppose any proposed cuts in the music programs for the SMMUSD elementary schools. It makes no sense. Aside from depriving our children of a wonderful, enriching program, it means cutting off the feeder programs for our award-winning Samohi music performance groups. There must be another way to go about saving/ finding money for the school budget.

A suggestion: corporate sponsorship should be pursued to support our schools. There are tons of new businesses coming into Santa Monica (look at the Lantana building and the massive construction going up on Colorado and Cloverfield). We're sure there are potential supporters of SMMUSD in those buildings.

The idea of cutting individual programs is not going to give you the millions of dollars needed to close the budget gap. Only a large influx of funding is going to do that (hence a push for corporate sponsorship to come up with those large numbers of dollars). Our children crave a stimulating curriculum, and one of the cornerstones of a well-rounded education is the arts. Such programs include the currently-vital music program in our elementary schools. We/you cannot let them die. We look to you, our elected representatives, to show leadership and find the wherewithal to sustain this important program.

Sincerely,

Christina and Murray Miller
Franklin Elementary School parents

December 15, 1999

Dear Boeard Member:

Recently I read an article in the L.A. Times which informed me of the phase I and II budget cuts esentially cutting and/or eliminating visual arts and fine arts programs at the elementary school level. I am a former high school English teacher with LAUSD, a Santa Monica resident, and product of the Santa Monica - Malibu Unified School District.

I am appalled to hear of these budget cuts! My family moved to Malibu in 1973, and my earliest memory of Point Dume Elementary School is actually the music class. Somehow, I was drafted into the music program and given a violin to play.

Though I couldn't read music, I improvised. My music teacher, some older gentleman, encouraged my playing. I really had little natural tallent in music but nonetheless switched to playing the flute until I was about 13. At this time I became enthralled with the drama program in the Jr. high.

I attribute my years in the music program to the constant positive feedback I recieved from my music teachers. Like I said, I had little talent and no real desire towards music. But, because I was an imressionable child I continued to play. What if I had had talent and desire to go on? I would have had early training and discipline to prepare me for the demands of a music program in high school.

At Malibu Park Jr. High and Samo High I committed myself to swimming and drama. I am a dyslexic who struggled with academics from primary school through graduate school, and cutting visual and fine art programs really hurts students like me. It is these programs that gave me a reason to come to school and eventually go to college.

The whole public school system is in crisis, I know because I was teaching in a very depressing atmosphere. It saddens me to know that some of the most important elements of an education are considered "elective" and that they can be cut into and slashed altogether is unconscionable.

I urge you not to go through with the phase III cut of the music program.

Angry and Saddened,

Debbie Bernstein

December 15, 1999

Board Members,

I am but another of the many voices pleading for mercy for the Elementary School Music program. By birth, I'm a midwesterner, born and raised in the state of Iowa. We cannot choose where we are born, but I was lucky.

I lived in a giant city of 30,000 people, small by California standards. But we had a very excellent music program that I navigated from about the fourth grade on up through high school. I enjoyed it, and it had a profound and positive effect on my life.

The community of Santa Monica has always appealed to me because it too cared about this aspect of education and life. The music program here was an accomplishment to be proud of.

My wife and I now have two children in the schools and music programs here. We take pride in the music programs here and in what the fine teachers have accomplished, with strong parental support, I might add. Music was in fact a major reason to move to Santa Monica.

We have looked forward to the point where our children might have the chance to be a part of the now world famous Santa Monica High School Orchestra.

But now you are considering the elimination of the Elementary School Music program. This will basically set back then entire system of instruction by two years. And you can't cut the bottom out of the tree without affecting its top. Pretty quickly the middle school and high school programs will suffer because of this. So a tremendous program of music instruction, a real feather in the cap of our community, will be compromised severely. I plead with you not to do this. Once done, it will not be easy to undo it.

We have many fine music instructors here, and I fear that they will be forced to look for employment in other communities that are more supportive of their efforts. And once these music instructors begin leaving, you will have a very difficult time putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.

I suspect you must not realize just how valuable the music experience in this community is. Santa Monica tends to think pretty highly of itself, I think, but as you begin to cut away at the qualities that make it unique, you will find there is not much left. Everyone associated with the music program works hard to make it great, and they've done a wonderful job.

To destroy that now just makes no sense at all. It is difficult enough to create a good program. To destroy one that's in place is just plain stupid.

Thank you for reading this, and please vote to save our Santa Monica music programs.

Craig Peterson (trumpeter, Emeritus College Band)
Jeanine Peterson (trombonist, Emeritus College Band)
Heather Peterson (flutist, John Adams Middle School)
Ethan Peterson (cornetist, Grant Elementary School)

December 14, 1999

Dear Editor,

You've heard it a hundred times or more - Music and the Arts are important and as necessary as food and water to a growing child. My life was forever enriched by the golden moments in my childhood which revolved around my participation in music and art. Please count me in if
you need volunteers to help in raising funds to continue giving children of all backgrounds these same golden moments for their lifetime. They are all worth the effort.

Best Regards,

Carole Sumler
Cybertown
Community Operations Manager

December 14, 1999

Dear Honorable Members of the Santa Monica-Malibu Community,

Obviously we have a problem and that problem is money. The causes of this situation are myriad and they need to be addressed. No solution is perfect or palatable but there is one obvious path that has, for a variety of reasons, never been pursued. Perhaps the notion of "public" education and "free" education need to be reevaluated. We pay tuition at our "public" schools on the college and university level. It's time we do so at the lower levels as well.

Call it a general service fee, nominal fee, material fee, whatever. Create a sliding scale. Call it a temporary surcharge. Charge students in the music, arts, or athletic programs. Charge for transportation, equipment or instrument rental and the like. Charge a fee for permit
kids.

What would the revenue be if every student in the district paid $5.00 a week to go to a Santa Monica- Malibu School?

Let's call it an "investment". Study after study show that people are more involved, more caring and responsible when they pay for a service rather than have it given to them for free.

If laws need to be changed, let's change them.