Students, staff protest Cali music cuts

Members of the Windsor School Board were greeted with chants of
“no music cuts, no music cuts” at their June 3 meeting at Brooks
Elementary School.
A small group of Cali Calm/cac students arrived 45 minutes early
to the board meeting to protest the proposed cut of the school’s
music program, which was led by music teacher David Gibney. Gibney,
a temporary employee who the district says has no seniority rights,
also spoke out in support of his employment with the district.
Gibney, who has been awarded two temporary contracts with the WUSD
in the past two years, believes he is no longer a temporary
employee, and should have seniority when applying for other
positions in the district.
“We think there’s discrimination,” said Gibney, noting that
Windsor Middle School has two music teachers while Cali Calm/cac
will have none next year. “If our music is cut, we don’t feel that
our students have equal access to educational resources. We think
we’re not in compliance with the civil rights statute.”
Gibney, along with students and parents, spoke to the board
during the public comment period and asked that the school be able
to continue with its program. “If the middle school has band, so
should we,” reasoned Brenda Nelson, a student at Cali Calm/cac.
Sayla Elsbree-Kraft, another music student, organized a protest at
the school. “We went around the playground and the upper field and
played our instruments and we yelled ‘no music cuts.'”
The board listened to each of the speakers, but later
acknowledged that the decision to cut or keep the Cali Calm/cac
music program isn’t up to them. “This is an issue that is in the
realm of the governing council over at Cali Calm/cac,” said WUSD
School Board President Ted Seche. Board member Deborah Crandall
said “They’re a charter school, they’re cutting what they’re
cutting.”
Ginger Dale, the principal at Cali Calm/cac and a member of the
school’s governing council, said that the decision to cut the music
program was based on the budget. “The lack of funding is the major
reason,” said Dale. “Each school has to decide where to put their
resources for the needs of the students.”
According to Dale, Cali Calm/cac first began its music program
two years ago after receiving state reward money for improving its
API test scores. That program has since been discontinued, leaving
the school without the funds to continue band. Dale said that while
she would like to continue with the band program, her priorities
for the upcoming year are to continue to improve in reading and
writing while surviving budget cuts. “My priority right now is
teaching English to the students who don’t speak English, and
reading and writing,” she said. “The state doesn’t judge a school
on its music program.”
Gibney said that he took the issue to the school board on the
recommendation of the Cali Calm/cac governing board. “There’s some
ambiguity on just who has the power here,” he said. “As a result,
when I talked to the governing board, some of the board members are
unsure if they have the power to overrule Ginger Dale.”
Gail Ralls, who sits on the Cali Calm/cac governing board, said
that the board hasn’t really discussed cutting the music program.
“We knew that the money was gone,” she said. She believes the board
simply understood that the money was gone, and the music program
would need to be discontinued.
In response to the band protest, Superintendent Robert Carter
issued a memo to the Cali Governing Board offering background
information. In the memo, Carter pointed out that the district does
not fund any music for grades K-5 at any school in the district,
that music is an elective program at the middle school paid for by
the school, and that Cali Calm/cac could also fund a music program
if it so wished.
Windsor Middle School Principal Loren Barker also wrote a letter
in response to the protest. “I have chosen to make music a top
priority at WMS as I believe that it is essential to a
well-balanced educational experience for middle school students,”
he wrote. “We have developed an exemplary music program for the
students at Windsor Middle School at no additional cost to the
district.” WMS, which has almost four times as many sixth, seventh
and eighth grade students as Cali Calm/cac, does not provide a
Spanish course elective to all of its students, allowing it to
spend money elsewhere. All students at Cali Calm/cac are required
to take Spanish.
If Cali Calm/cac does decide to cut its music program, a
decision that the school’s governing board believes will happen,
Gibney may sue the district to fight for his job. “In a nutshell,
when you serve two years of service as a certified teacher in any
school district in California, then you become a probationary
teacher,” said Attorney Scott Lewis, who represents Gibney. Both
Lewis and Gibney believe that the district is in violation of the
educational code.
Loyal Carlon, director of Human Resources for the WUSD, is
confident the district is in the right. “I know we’re procedurally
correct and I’m comfortable that we are following the educational
code,” he said. “He (Gibney) was contracted as a temporary employee
and he was released prior to March 15. A temporary employee is a
year to year position.”