The Friends of Music at Terryville High School is concerned that our town has just taken a huge step backward in eliminating a music position at Eli Terry Jr. Middle School. With only one teacher to teach both chorus and band at the middle school, the town-wide program will suffer. This will affect the high school program over the coming few years where we currently have an award-winning band and chorus that represents our town proudly in regional parades and festivals. Music has been proven to increase math scores, reading scores, science scores, SAT scores; help problem solving abilities; increase coordination. Findings show that student musicians have a more positive perception about themselves; and participation in music has been cited by college admission counselors to be very important. We, the undersigned, are concerned citizens of Plymouth, CT who urge our leaders to act now to reinstate the music teacher position that was recently eliminated for the 2014-2015 school year.