Advocate for the Replacement Hire for a Full-Time Elementary Band Instructor

Through Mr. Tribble’s and Mrs. West’s leadership (our middle and high school director), they have built a tremendous band program here at Greensburg-Salem. The leadership of our choir teachers can be seen in our outstanding musicals. Our district received from the National Association of Music Merchants the “2019 Best Communities for Music Education” award. Franklin Regional won this award this year, too. We are among only 623 school districts across the United States to receive this award. This is an incredibly important statement about the excellence of our student musicians, the dedication of our faculty, and the support of the community. This national award is quite an honor when you take in account our small school size, small number of music staff compared to other school districts (even when we compare ourselves against other school districts right here in SWPA), and limited school funds.

We are here to advocate for the future of the band program overall, a stronger music program.

Our school district has been facing financial concerns due to the decline of population and the tax base, and the state not funding local districts sufficiently. School budgets are difficult to balance. Based on a meeting with administration, there are competing needs for the funds that are available.

Our school administrators and school board have tough decisions to make in order to provide strong academics within a balanced budget. Because band and music truly make great impact on our children academically, cognitively and socially, we ask that you advocate that our administration and school board make hiring a full-time replacement elementary band staff position a priority as Mr. Tribble retires.

To remain a competitive school district among Westmoreland County and among SWPA, we must actively advocate for a strong band music program. Unfortunately, our band program is already short-staffed. We are among one of the very few in SWPA that has only 1 elementary band teacher and 1 teacher to instruct both middle and high school. It is imperative that the district looks to hire such a skilled and charismatic teacher as Mr. Tribble. His expertise and leadership as well as his warmth and charisma have provided our students a strong foundation in music. We ask that our school district hires a new full-time teacher that will continue to keep our band program strong well into the future.

Your voice needs to be heard. To advocate for the band program, particularly, the elementary band teacher position, we ask of you 3 things:

1. Sign the petition to keep the elementary band teacher position.

2. School Superintendent Dr. Peiffer encouraged us to advocate to the school board our support for the position. The date of the Regular School Board meeting has changed to Tuesday, May 14th at 7 pm. The meeting will be in Room 003 at the Middle School (downstairs near the cafeteria).

3. Contact Eric Nelson, our state legislator, to advocate for better local funding of schools.

Thank you for helping us to keep our band program not only viable but strong for our future generations of students.