No child will ever take band over recess, nor should they have to. Over the past couple of weeks, the school board has reviewed a choice made by the district, which would make fifth graders choose between recess or an instrument lesson at least once a week if they want to participate in the band program. 

This change comes after Covid paused the band program, school and district leadership shifted, and proficiency scores dropped. The impact of Covid on the band program in every school should not be underestimated. The high school students had to wear instrument masks and could play with only half of the band at school. The middle school had a similarly reduced program, and the elementary schools did not have a band program at all. Because of this, Mildred L. Day School’s new principal claims she was told there was no band program and didn’t implement one that year. The change in band scheduling was presented during the July 31st board meeting by the elementary school principals. The new plan involves fifth graders having the option of sacrificing their recess to get 30-minute instrument lessons. In addition, there is no plan for multi-instrument, full band practice, which becomes more impactful as a band student enters sixth grade with no group playing experience. In the Public Comment section during the July 31st board meeting, some solutions were mentioned to fix the problem of students missing recess. One commenter, Miriam Whitehouse, mentioned making a foreign language an elective similar to band and giving parents of band kids the option to drop Spanish to take band. While I think this is a good option on the surface, knowing a foreign language is an essential life skill for a world that is becoming more connected. Languages are also easier to learn when taught to younger students, and an extra year of practice is better than starting in middle school. The new plan was designed to boost education time for math and literature; however, this will come at the expense of student participation. 

Currently, band is a popular program at both KCS and SRS. 19 out of 20 students at Consolidated take band, and around 70-75% of students at SRS take a band class. MLD didn’t have any students taking band last year as they did not offer it. As a fourth grader, I was incredibly excited that I had the opportunity to take a band class. I started on percussion but transferred to alto saxophone in fifth grade. Band means a lot to me and other band students. I consider the band room one of my favorite spots in the school and hang out there before school starts and during lunch. Band is also a place where anyone can belong; it doesn’t matter if you do sports or theatre or nothing else, you belong in the band room. I would hate for fifth graders to make a choice, resulting in them not finding people that share their same interests, or worse, having them not pursue band at all in the future. Band and the arts as a whole also prepare students to enter into a market that values design and is needed to spur creativity, which separates people from AI, as one board member said in the July 31st meeting. The creativity that is derived from the arts can’t be underestimated in the modern world, and depriving a student of band might lead them down a path where they don’t explore the arts at all. 

Finding room to put band in the schedule is a hard choice, but it is an important one. I worked as a summer camp counselor, and the hardest thing for kids to do is sit still without recess. I also know many kids who want to join the band program when they are in fifth grade, but I don’t think they would sacrifice recess for it. Even the principal of MLD, Gail Keith, realizes this. When asked about it, she replied, “I think we may miss some kids who don’t want to miss recess to take a band instrument.” Another problem with swapping band for recess is that Maine requires students to have 30 minutes of recess a day. Since recess allows students to learn better, band kids are put at a disadvantage by being forced to sit still for six hours. 

This isn’t an easy problem to solve, but there has to be a better solution than sacrificing recess time for band. This program has been set up to fail, and other options must be explored and implemented.