The school district recently announced all elementary school instrumental and vocal concerts will be held during the academic day rather than at night.
Some parents are unhappy about a change to the elementary school concert schedule in Cherry Hill Public Schools.
Elementary school parents recently received letters stating all elementary schools in the district will begin holding instrumental and vocal concerts during the school day rather than at night, beginning this spring. Barbara Wilson, the public information officer for Cherry Hill Public Schools, confirmed this change in an email on Monday morning.
The letter sent home to parents talks about why the district decided to make the change. Wilson said the decision was made with the input of the elementary school principals.
The letter states, “The elementary principals and the elementary music teachers have discussed the concept of day time concerts, the benefits to the students and the impact on the music program. As a school district, one of our most successful academic areas is music. Our goal is to enhance and to increase student participation in our programs and to increase retention in the music programs as children progress from elementary to middle school and from middle school to high school.”
The letter goes on to say the daytime concerts will “allow all children who are involved to participate, without placing undue challenges on the child or on families that can be associated with nighttime concerts.”
The district is also considering the utilization of a streaming process to show all concerts.
On Friday, a petition was started on Change.org asking the school district to reinstate evening elementary school concerts. The petition received more than 350 signatures in about three days, with many signers expressing concerns about the ability for parents who work during the day to attend their child’s concert.
“As a working parent, I do not necessarily have the ability to take off from work to attend a concert during the day,” Laurie Neary wrote on the petition. “You are eliminating the ability of a large portion of the student body parents from enjoying the fruits of their child’s labor, and this is unacceptable.”
“My son loves playing the flute, which he just started this year, and one primary motivator throughout was the opportunity to showcase what he’s learned for his parents and grandparents in the concert,” Pamela Barroway wrote. “Please preserve this wonderful tradition away from hardworking Cherry Hill students and their families.”
Some groups, such as the Sharp Elementary School PTA, posted on social media it is planning to have representatives attend Tuesday night’s Cherry Hill Board of Education meeting to speak about the schedule change.
