The Fort Bend Independent School District is working hard to avoid a flat note as budget and time squeezes steal resources and students from school bands.

While less money is coming into the district for fine arts, graduation standards are forcing students to forego band, theater and other programs.

This year’s fine arts expenditures budget for high schools districtwide is $558,440, nearly $190,000 less than last school year, according to district records. That’s down from $846,623 for the 2005-06 school year. The fine arts budget includes theater, dance, band and other programs.

“We just have to be more prudent about how we spend our money,” said Matthew Milner, secondary coordinator of fine arts for FBISD. “The district sends the bands to the events they need to go to, and the district provides the bands with everything they need.”

Band boosters have a different view of the effects of the budget limitations.

The district only pays for University Interscholastic League events, leaving booster clubs to fund trips to other marching shows. That limits the bands’ opportunities to go to shows, depending on how much money the boosters can raise, said Paula Mouton, Bush High School booster club president.

Other effects

The cutbacks are really noticeable in other areas, Mouton said.

Bush High’s band needed eight new instruments, but the school could only afford to buy two new bell-front euphoniums, she said. The booster club, which raises money through cookie sales, car washes and a yearly march-a-thon, will buy two bell-front euphoniums this year, and try to buy more next year.

Lorraine Carey, president of the Clements band boosters, said she noticed the cuts about two years ago, after seeing the condition of the band’s instruments.

“You really see it (the shortfall) in the school’s ability to replace old and worn-out instruments,” she said. “A lot of it is bare-bones. But the band directors are extraordinarily gifted in repairing them and getting longer life out of them.”

The Clements band can’t practice on the school football fields because of the cost of electricity and having a custodian on duty, said Carey, whose club raises $60,000 to $70,000 each year.

The Bush band is left to copy or borrow other bands’ music sheets, rather than buy new ones, Mouton said.

“It’s ridiculous to have to nickel and dime everything,” she said. The Bush band boosters’ budget is about $25,000.

But Milner said the essentials for band members are still intact.

“Our district has not cut staff for the fine arts programs,” he said. “It’s keeping good teachers in front of the students to help them continue to grow.”

“It’s a shame that they have to make cuts,” Carey said. “But I understand about budgets. It’s just that fine arts are always the first thing to be cut.”

Fewer students, too

Dollars aren’t the only numbers affecting bands, though.

Statewide, districts are seeing a decline in the number of students participating in band, Milner said. Participation among the bands in the district’s 10 high schools is following the same trend. About 1,400 high school students are in band, according to district numbers. Previous year totals were unavailable.

Part of the decrease is because of the 4-by-4 graduation requirements the Texas Education Agency instituted in 2007, requiring students to take four years of English, social studies, math and science. That has squeezed out time for fine arts activities like band, Milner said.

“We’re doing our best to keep up participation in fine arts and keep them involved,” he said.
Mouton, whose six children were or are in band, thinks the expense of buying an instrument is also causing fewer students to participate.

A good influence

“Good kids hang out in band,” Mouton said. “I’ve seen a whole lot of band kids make the right decision where otherwise they might not.”

Band teaches students teamwork, discipline and time management, she said. And they get to travel and see things they wouldn’t otherwise see.

Milner said, “The arts are a chance to impact a part of the students that don’t get impacted in the other classes.”