With all the budget cuts and Mr. Macon retiring, what is the plan for the music program at the high school? Is this going to be a program that is cut?

Thanks for the question!

While it is true that the state budget is going to have a severe impact on all the school districts in California, we at HUSD have been working hard to mitigate its impact on our students.

Our goal is to respond to the state budget crisis in a calm, cool manner that allows us to keep the cuts as far away from the classroom as possible. While many districts are cutting sports, music and class size reduction from their budgets, we are hopeful that we can continue every current program we have in some fashion. By that I mean that some programs may be refocused or reduced, but not eliminated.

As you know, under Mr. Macon's direction, the Viking Band of Pride is a flagship program at HHS. Our student musicians have benefited greatly from Mr. Macon's dedication to his students, school and community. There is no way that we would allow this fantastic program to go away. In fact, we have already begun the process to fill the position of band teacher and have several applicants already.

I will say that we are advertising the position as a 4-12 Band/Chorus teacher, with an emphasis on 9-12. It is possible that we may have to have the new band teacher teach a class at the middle school and/or elementary schools in addition to the high school. This gives us flexibility in the event we are not able to fully fund an elementary/middle school position.

The elementary/middle school position has traditionally been a very difficult position to fill, and we need to have as much flexibility as possible. We will attempt to staff this position (at the elementary/middle schools ) as a part time position.

So, what are we doing to ensure we can afford to keep the programs we currently have? Over the past several months, we have been quietly, through attrition, reducing the staffing levels of the district. We have reduced the maintenance and administrative staff significantly. We will continue to look at each open position that comes up and analyze whether or not the position absolutely needs to be filled. If it does not, we will hold it open until it is needed.

Our biggest battle in the budget, however, is not what they do to us at the state level. Our current battle is that of declining enrollment. Each year, for the past several years, our enrollment has been dropping. The past three years we have seen a severe drop and are working to correct that. For every student that leaves our district, we have to find a way to cover the $8,000 or so that student takes from our district on an annual basis.

I'm hopeful that each of you reading this will help promote the district. We are doing fantastic things in this district and we all need to do our part to let everyone know it. Our music program is definitely one that we can be proud of and I assure you that it will continue on well in to the future.