*1 Herald & lantern 22 August '84

Avalon to Offer Lessons Music Muffled by State

STONE HARBOR - The local school board has been told not to offer private instrumental music lessons during school hours this fall and to reimburse parents for fees they paid a private instructor last year. In the meantime, Avalon has announced it will give free instrumental music lessons as part of its regular curriculum. And Sea Isle City is "working on" a similar program, according to its administrative principal, Frank C. Dougherty. AVALON WILL USE vocal instructor Cindy Banik to give lessons in about five band instruments, according to a press release from the school. Banik also is shared by Sea Isle City and Stone Harbor, working two days in Avalon, two in Sea Isle City, and one in Stone Harbor. Sea Isle City also would use Banik, for instrumental instructions, Dougherty indicated, depending on "scheduling difficulties." But an Avalon source said Stone Harbor is "not interested" in doing the same thing. STONE HARBOR chief school administrator R. See Coupon Ear 1 50<pJ On Classified Page j

Donald Wendorf refused to discuss the issue with the Herald and Lantern, claiming a Herald story on the program last November "got me in a lot of trouble In fact, the "trouble" — state Education Department objections to charging fees for a school-hour program — oc cured before the article appeared and were reporteo in the article. "Maybe we won't have music," said Stone Harbor School Board President Douglas V. Stanford. "W^ don't know. We're trying to figure out what's best for the kids." AN. ESTIMATE of how much money in paybacks this will cost the district was not available* The board next meets at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 19. "We don't see that as a major problem, ' ' said Stanford. "We don't know how much the parents paid for lessons. We'll notify them and they'll let us know. "We weren't involved financially," he added. "We were just trying to provide a program for the children." Pupils were paying $18 a month to Arthur Leiby of Ocean City, employed by the Instrumental Music Program of Wilmington, Del. About 20 of Stone Harbor's 44 pupils in grades 4-8 participated initially, indicating the returned fees would total less than $2,500. A number of pupils reportedly dropped the lessons.

AVALONS NEWS release said its instrumental music program would "add to the options available to students when they enter hign school. " When the Stone Harbor program was introduced last fall, it was pointed out that pupils were arriving at high school (Stone Harbor and Avalon at Middle; Sea Isle City at Ocean City) at a disadvantage when it came to competing for high school band. MIDDLE TOWNSHIP'S elementary and middle schools offer instrumental music, as does Dennis Township Elementary School. As a result, Middle Township High School band reportedly is made up entirely of Middle and Dennis Township students. Band director Richard Ludwig, who said he favored a program taught by a full-time teacher, said students should have two years experience and be playing an instrument by the seventh grade to qualify for the band Avalon Elementary originally was going to offer a similar private instrumental music program last fall, but backed off in the face of objections from its unit of the New Jersey Education Association, whose representatives reportedly made the initial complaint to county schools Supt. Robert G. Bongart last year when Stone Harbor went ahead. BONGART TOLD Stone Harbor not to charge fees for the lessons, but it chose

to Fight the issue to the state Department of Education, where it lost The NJEA wanted a teacher hired and shared, as is done with vocal music. The NJEA and the state Department of Education said it was improper to offer a for-fee program dining school hours since all pupils possibly could not afford to take it. 1 THE DEPARTMENTS decision said: "While the (Stone Harbor) board has stated that no one objected to the fee charged for the instrumental music program in this manner and that no pupil was excluded i to economic or financial hardship, there is in fact no way of determining from the record if any pupil was denied access to the program. irrespective of the fact that none of Stone Har bor's pupils qualify for free or reduced price meals " Stone Harbor had an enrollment of 95 in grades 1-8 last year. Avalon had 111 and Sea Isle City 1J5 j Middle Township's Elementary School No 3 (for fourth and fifth j graders) had about 100 pupils taking instrumental music The Middle Township Middle School (for grades 6, 7. and 8) had its own instrumental music instructor Dennis Township Elementary had an enrollment of 512 in grades K-8 and offered instrumental music starting in the third grade with two part-time instructors

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