The rumors are true! The national award-winning Jazz Band program at LHS is dying. Due to scheduling limitations put in place by the school district, participation this year has been cut in half, and next year the program will completely disappear. All of this is simply because the district administration has decided that jazz band can no longer be offered as a 0 Period class as it has always been. Now, instead of opening access to as many students as possible, the school district is forcing students to choose between their required core academic courses and one of the most successful programs Livermore has seen in decades.
To be clear, this is not a money issue. It is a scheduling problem that has a simple solution. Unfortunately the cries to save the LHS jazz program are falling on deaf ears. It should also be noted that the LHS admins have been strong advocates for keeping Jazz Band in 0 Period. The decisions to let Jazz die are coming solely from the school district office.
Honors Jazz Band and Advanced Theater Arts are both facing the same situation – both are academic classes that have historically been run outside of the school day to open access to as many students as possible. Now both programs are being negatively affected because putting the class in the day limits the number of students that can join. In the case of drama, they can’t run productions because there are not enough kids in the class to cast a show. In the case of Jazz Band, we will no longer be able to field a competitive band in competitions.
It has never been a lack of funding. The teachers are full time employees and their class loads would not change regardless of when the classes are run.
We need your help to correct this! Contact LVJUSD superintendent Dr. Torie Gibson at tgibson@lvjusd.org or 925-606-3281 and urge the district to make things right.
Preserve the arts in Livermore schools!