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Several music groups in Saskatchewan are banding together over changes raising concerns over in unison.
Planned changes to the elementary band program are set to roll out at Regina Public Schools starting next school year, which groups are not finding harmonious.
Saskatchewan Band Association CEO, Suzanne Gorman, said they’ve sent a letter to the Regina Board of Education with a clear message: “Please pause this, connect with your parents, connect with the community and the experts and use your band teachers to work on a solution that will actually be successful.”
Read more:
- Regina Public expands band program with new music hub at former Dieppe School
- Regina Public Schools approves band cuts, denies parent group appeal
- Regina Public Schools sees change rooms outcome as a positive
The concerns come after the Regina Public School Division announced the restructuring of the band program last month, which included mandatory band for grade 6 students starting next school year and a new music centre at the former Dieppe School, where grade 7 and 8 band students would be bussed to for classes.
Gorman felt there were still major questions about how the plan would work.
“It all sounds great, but people didn’t understand – that isn’t a band,” said Gorman.
“What it is, is an instrument introduction time. We’re not even sure what that means. We don’t even know what instruments that is, and we don’t know how it will be taught, like we have no information on how that would work.”
Gorman said they were not consulted on the changes to the band program prior to the announcement.
“When that announcement came out, everybody was surprised. Nobody had heard about where this was coming from. Nobody was involved in the development of it. So that’s a big concern.”
While the school division said the changes are set to make more students interested in band and help grow the band program, Gorman is worried it may have the opposite effect.
“I believe that they, in their hearts, are actually hoping what they do is positive and beneficial,” Gorman said. “We’re just sounding the alarm of the fact that we think some of those decisions were made without necessarily the best input or advice, and that there are ways to achieve their objectives without necessarily making such a radical shift.”
She suggested a better idea would be to introduce instruments earlier.
“Like a teaser or an opportunity for them to get to know about instruments and get some excitement in grade five would be a great feeder to recruiting them into grade six,” Gorman suggested. “Research shows that you start students in grade 5 or 6 for a reason … They’re more likely to be successful, to stay in the program longer, to remain with music throughout their school career.”
With grade 7 and 8 band students set to be bused to the former Dieppe School for band class once a week for an afternoon, Gorman said she’s also concerned about the loss of the area band structure.
“Right now, the elementary students see the high school students. They do concerts at the same time, there’s a bit of collegiality and a family that gets built between the elementary and the high school, and we don’t want to see that lost either.”
Ultimately, Gorman said the plan feels incomplete.
“It’s a very loosely sketched out plan without a lot of details,” she said. “If it’s a work in progress and you don’t have things all fleshed out, press pause for the launch in 2026 and work with your band teachers and the community to build a successful model that will achieve the results that they’re trying to do.”
They’re urging the division to slow down and make sure the plan strikes the right chord.
Back in February, the school division said currently, elementary band classes are often held in boot rooms, gyms, hallways – and even kitchens because there isn’t enough space.
“(The new music centre is) a place where all the music teachers are centered. The instruments are kept here. There will be cleaning equipment, etc. Instead of what I think is, right now, a little bit of a willy-nilly arrangement,” said Regina Public Division CEO, Mark Haarmann, during the announcement in February.
Currently, 1,700 kids are in the elementary band program, with Haarmann adding that only 41 per cent of Grade 6 students participate in band as the program is now, a number that drops to only 17 per cent by Grade 8.
Part of the issue, as Haarmann explained, is students are taken out of core subjects like math, language arts and science for band class.
“The current model is very disruptive and that’s one of the main reasons kids move on. I hear time and again, and we heard from our data that kids felt like missing a math lesson or missing a language lesson just became too much to catch up.”
Back in June last year, Regina Public Schools moved forward with cuts to the band program to deal with a nearly $2.7 million deficit. It came with a lot of pushback and concerns from parents and band associations in the province.
