When you walk through the Brookline K-8 Public Schools, it’s not unusual to hear a mélange of performances: trumpeters making their way through a Star Wars melody in one room, scales being plucked out on guitars in another and the baseline of a Korean folk song being played by cellists in a third. You only have to come at the right time, and you’ll hear the work of Brookline’s rich conservatory program, a program that faced major cuts back in February.
Beginning in fourth grade, the Brookline Conservatory program provides students with musical instruction once a week. In sixth grade, this is increased to twice weekly, and students have the option of participating in Band, Orchestra, Chorus, Guitar/Ukulele, Music Production or Music Exploration classes.
On February 13, 2025, the School Committee met to hear the district’s proposals to mitigate the $8.2 million budget deficit that the Public Schools of Brookline will be operating with next year. To save an estimated $700,000, administrators proposed eliminating these conservatory classes and instating a once-weekly general music class in the middle schools. In response, some participants in Friends of Performing Arts (FOPA), a group of Brookline parent volunteers, quickly sent out a petition to eliminate these cuts. By the following Monday, over 800 people had signed in favor of the Conservatory program. On March 6, only three weeks later, the school committee voted unanimously to reject all cuts to the program.
As the 2024-25 school year comes to a close and focus shifts to future years, according to K-12 Performing Arts Coordinator Kenny Kozol, the petition and proposals left the department with mixed emotions.
“The community support is incredibly encouraging. It lets us know that this is what the families and the students value, and those are the most important people in a school system,” Kozol said. “On the other hand, if there is a proposal to cut your program, it makes you feel insecure about the future of your program and the work that you care about so much for your students and for the world.”
Kozol believes that the work that he and his team do is essential for making a musical education, a traditionally expensive opportunity, accessible. According to Kozol, traditional private lessons can cost up to $100 an hour, while through the Brookline Public Schools, families can get private lessons for $50.
At the school committee meeting on March 6, elementary orchestra teacher John Ferguson argued for the level playing field the program provides.
“Central administration talks about the importance of inclusion and equity. However, they are proposing to dismantle one of the largest programs to address inclusion and equity; program that ensures that every student has access to a high-quality instrument and private lessons regardless of financial situation,” Ferguson said.
Looking forward to next year, elementary band teacher Rick Stone, who has been teaching in Brookline for over 20 years, was both hopeful and hesitant because of the process undergone in February and March.
“We’re lucky to have it in the schools and we’re lucky to have the support,” Stone said. “But I do hope that a few years down the line, we’re not going to go through a similar thing, and I can’t say with complete confidence that it won’t happen again. The best that I can do is hope, and we can just keep doing the best job we can.”
Though the potential cuts didn’t explicitly affect the high school’s conservatory program, many feared that without the elementary programming and uncertainty over townwide ensembles, those would eventually be impacted by low enrollment and subsequent cuts. Brookline High School’s Director of Orchestras, Nina Bishop, also expressed a mix of hope and frustration, grateful for the public support of what she believes is an incredible opportunity available to all students.
“The arts are the crown jewel of culture and society. Our orchestra just went on a five-day tour to Canada, and that was an amazing opportunity through music for students to go and observe another place and try speaking another language and meet other people. Music gives people a lot of opportunities to do that kind of thing,” Bishop said.
In addition to the Conservatory department’s accessibility, Kozol emphasized the social importance of the program, which he said families understood.
“There’s this element of music that is so integral to learning how to work in groups and work together and collaborate and do that productively,” Kozol said. “And that is more needed now than ever in the world, because we are so isolated by our phones and our devices.”
