Laid-off music teachers perform farewell concert, hope for encore in classrooms

This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.

by Peter Crimmins for NewsWorks

An 80-piece orchestra performed a farewell concert Monday in the administrative offices of the Philadelphia School District, its members bidding adieu to themselves.

The performers were mostly music teachers, whom the District budget, as it stands, will eliminate.

Many Philadelphia schools lost their music teachers years ago, but the District had a backup plan: to parachute a music teacher into several schools each week, for a few hours. These "class" teachers, or itinerant teachers, provided instrument instruction, developed ensembles, and conducted recitals.

The District had allotted $7 million to maintain 66 full-time itinerant music teachers, but the music education line-item was a casualty of budget cutting. To eliminate its $304 million deficit, the District is seeking $60 million from the city and $120 million from the state, as well as labor concessions.

"Some of our students just don’t believe us — that we’re not coming back," said Hugh Williamson, an itinerant teacher assigned mostly to schools in Roxborough. "Sometimes we issue instruments over the summer, so kids can practice. They didn’t believe it until we said, ‘No, we can’t issue you an instrument because the program’s been cut.’ Unless things change, there will be no program in the fall."

Williamson believes the School Reform Commission could recalculate the $7 million line-item to retain at least some music instruction.

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