School Board Passes Music Curriculum, Considers Budget Issues and Capital Projects

The Culver City Unified School District Board of Education passed a new districtwide music curriculum Tuesday night, in spite of several objections from teachers and parents. The panel also heard reports on potential budget cuts from the state government and on ongoing capital projects in the district.

Board Vice President Karlo Silbiger also noted during his period for remarks that the filing period for November's election to the school board begins Monday. Two seats, currently occupied by Board President Scott Zeidman and Steven Gourley, will up for election.

During one of his two separate reports, Ali Delawalla, assistant superintendent business services noted that the recently passed state budget features "trigger language" that could result in future cuts to the district budget. He pointed out that the budget was based on a certain amount of revenue coming in to state coffers. If a target amount is not received by Dec. 15, Delawalla said, it will trigger an automatic cut in the amount of money sent to the district by the state.

Delawalla also presented a report on the ongoing group of capital projects the district is in the process of beginning, including improvements to the athletic fields at Culver City High School, upgrades to the Robert Frost Auditorium, a new elevator, and a project to install solar panels on three district school rooftops. He pointed out that the solar panel project could overrun the special funds available for such projects by as much as $2 million.

"We will look at the modernization fund from the state," Delawalla said about a possible way to make up the shortfall. Additional options include a grant for the solar panels from the Air Quality Management District, plus funds from a bond measure passed in 2006 that still has money available for such projects.

Teacher Tania Fleischer spoke on the proposed new music curriculum, asking that the board scrap the district's music program altogether and rebuild it from the ground up as more funding becomes available.

"Our music program doesn't work," said Fleischer, who teaches stringed instruments in the high school Academy of Visual and Performing Arts program.

She explained that having good music instruction at the elementary and middle school levels is necessary to "feed" students into advanced programs at the high school level.

"In public education feeder programs are critical," she said, adding that talented students who might otherwise participate at the high school level usually drop out or go to other districts. "We have an anti-feeder program."

Teacher Roberta Sergant, of El Marino Language School, described herself as musically inept and raised concerns that she nor her colleagues had seen the new curriculum plan and she would be expected to teach children how to play the recorder.

"There's not enough development time to teach me recorder," she said, referring to a teacher training and development program recommended by the curriculum plan.

Music professor Dr. Luther Henderson, who teaches at Los Angeles City College, praised the plan.

"It has come to my attention that music is as important as any other subject," he said.

Silbiger said that while he agreed with Fleischer and her seven companions that there needed to be more quality instruction in music at the early grades, he did not agree with shutting down the program completely until a better one could be put in place.

"I think that your solution is the wrong one," Silbiger said, pointing out that he has worked as a music teacher in the district. "We can't allow music to be considered an option. We need to do a better job."

Board member professor Patricia Siever said that the new curriculum would be more rigorous and expressed concerns about closing down the music program.

"Once you cut a program, you don't get it back," she said.

Board member Katherine Paspalis also pointed out that the new curriculum plan was an ongoing process that would take five years to fully implement.

"We are not going to have music rooms in the schools overnight," she said.

The board passed the plan unanimously.