JOYCE — The Crescent School high school and middle school bands will play their swan songs tonight at 7 p.m. at the school cafeteria, 50350 state Highway 112.
When facing severe cuts from the state Legislature, the band class — which includes middle school band and high school band — was one of the victims of the cuts, Superintendent Tom Anderson said.
The district had to cut $165,000 out of its $3.5 million budget, Anderson said.
Anderson said he is hopeful that the school can return soon.
“We are hoping to restore it as soon as possible,” he said.
“Although it will not go next year, it doesn’t mean it won’t go the year after.”
He said that the school will look for outside money to fill the gap.
“We’ll look for money that is outside the state Legislature,” he said.
“I do not have a lot of hope that we will find something this next year, but we hope we can for the year after.”
He said that the school is looking for other funding in addition to seeing what happens with state funding.
The beginning band for fifth-graders will remain intact, with band director Coke Smith staying on at the school, Anderson said.
But the other two will no longer be in operation after tonight.
The high school band currently has 15 students enrolled, and the middle school band has 21, Anderson said.
The school — which is a kindergarten through 12th grade school — has a total of 197 students this year.
The school did not have to issue “reduction in force” notices to teachers this year, Anderson said.
“Most of our reductions came from the band classes and from a vocational math class,” he said.
The math class was no longer necessary, he said.
In addition to those classes, the school also cut the cross country running program, Anderson said.
“What we did was we looked for the classes that generated the least interest and had the fewest students signing up for it,” he said.
“We tried to reduce classes that would impact the fewest students.”
He said that although declining enrollment was an issue for area schools, Crescent’s enrollment had remained about the same.
“We have been lucky — at least so far,” he said.
“It is possible that if we have a spike upward, we could use the extra funds to bring back the band classes.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
