I was alerted to this letter to the editor in last month’s Oregonian by a colleague on Facebook:
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting the fabulous new auditorium connected to the Beaverton Arts and Communication school. The principal was so proud of every phase of the project from the new piano, to ballet flooring, to sound acquisition.
Sadly, I see the Beaverton School District is eliminating all orchestra classes in the district. $300,000,000 bond for the auditorium and no school orchestras. How shameful is that! With over $10,000 to educate a student, one would think that funding could be found for an orchestra. There are bands. Why not classical music funding? We have football, etc.
How about generous gifts, as Beaverton received for a football field, or grants? If nothing else, how about ONE city orchestra based at the auditorium for youth from all the Beaverton schools after school? That would at least give them some chance to continue their skills in music.
Bonnie Hensley
Beaverton
As far as I could tell from the district’s website (which is incredibly difficult to navigate), the bond that was issued (from which the construction of the auditorium at the Beaverton ACMS was funded) for the entire district’s construction/infrastructure needs was in the amount of $196,000,000. I’ve contacted the district to see if they are indeed cutting orchestra programs for the 2010-2011 school year. If anyone has any documentation on this plan, please email me with information (see the contact me tab above). Stay tuned for updates…
3 replies on “beaverton axes string program?”
As saddening as it is to hear that Beaverton is cutting their school music program, I’m happy to report that Hillsboro is starting theirs. Glencoe High School is planning to re-introduce their string “class”. Apparently they’ve got a handful of players that asked to start the class. Last time it was on the books was supposedly 20 years ago. Time will tell if it actually happens in the fall as planned, but this is a great step.
In addition, the Westside Community & Youth Orchestra has worked out a program with the Hillsboro School district to offer after-school strings instruction to 50% of the elementary and middle schools (hoping to expand to all schools if successful this year). We’ll be busing kids from their elementary school to the Middle School for the instruction and we’re hoping to have a great start in the fall. This Westside Young Strings program will work as a feeder for the Westside Community & Youth Orchestra that has been serving advanced Middle School and High School youth (plus adult mentors) in the Hillsboro School district since spring of 2009. The district has been extremely supportive and helpful and we couldn’t have done it without their help.
So, all is not bad news in the Portland metro area. 🙂
That is great news! Having played Kinderkonzerts out in Hillsboro as part of the Oregon Symphony’s educational outreach program, I know that there has been some real will to support arts education in Hillsboro. It is great to hear that students took the initiative to insist that a string program exist!
Do let us know what you find out.