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Etobicoke parent Syma Saleem says she’s incredibly disappointed and frustrated that her son Hussain, who just started Grade 6 at his middle school, is facing a one-third reduction in enriched music instruction there.
Saleem and other Toronto District School Board parents knew in the spring that a $1.4-million cut was coming to the $5-million itinerant music instructor program — which includes instruction on steel pan, band and string instruments for students in Grades 5 to 8 — but the specifics weren’t made known until late last week.
Saleem was told last week by school staff that students at her son’s school, John G. Althouse, will now receive two teaching periods of itinerant instruction, down from three. Saleem has been told the school is also cutting its elite strings, elite band and stage band instruction, offered in Grades 7 and 8.
The itinerant music program is part of the “school’s fabric,” Saleem says.
Replies
Sad and unfortunate, really. Things like this do not happen in a vacuum. Elections have consequences.
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