In a 4-0 vote Tuesday night, Nov. 17, members of the Jackson Public School District Board of Trustees reinstated its contract with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra (MSO).
The item was placed on the agenda by board member Jonathan Larkin.
Parents, students and community members were happy over the board’s action. Strings in the School Program, implemented by MSO, will now be reactivated.
At its regular board meeting Oct. 20, the JPS board failed to renew the 42-year contract in a 2-2 vote split. MSO, in good faith, had already begun the program for the current school year and parents had already invested in expenditures for their children to participate. The program was suspended.
The split sparked an outcry from parents, students, former students, Parents for Public Schools-Jackson (PPJ), a former board member and members of the community.
Parents say the board’s Tuesday night decision to renew the MSO contract is a victory for the children – a product of a month of peaceful, but firm and organized protest. Board members received countless emails, calls and cries of concerns during public participation at special meetings.
The board room Tuesday night was filled with concerned parents, their children and others determined to wait, during what appeared to be a lengthy meeting, to address the board. Students were seen waving signs of protest: “Save our Strings,” “Support Strings in our School,” etc.
Several of the student protesters told The Mississippi Link that they were there because of what the program means to them. “The Strings program is very important to me, because it helps me to stay out of trouble,” said Tony Williams, a ninth-grader at Murrah High School. “Every time I go to my Strings class, I have fun.”
Chastain Middle School’s eighth-grader Travis Williams said not only do students learn how to play an instrument, the program “helps students in many ways by meeting new people in all-city, and just by expressing yourself.”
Murrah’s tenth-grader Samuel Sarpong, who takes strings at Power APAC (not under the auspices of the MSO contract) said he was there in support of the other students. “It helps me to increase my music knowledge and build up my confidence when playing in front of people,” he said.
The JPS board’s unanimous 4-0 vote means Strings students may pick those violins back up, because MSO President and Executive Director Michael Beattie plans to let the music play as early as this week. The action also means that high school students who enrolled in Strings as a half credit can breathe a sigh of relief.
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