Holbrook Middle High-School has many extracurricular activities students may participate in, from chorus to robotics, mock trial to GSA. The school has many possibilities for students to find interests and just have fun. However like many schools arts programs are being cut and an instance of this has occurred in HMHS. 

The school’s jazz band was a club that had many members and taught students a different type of music that they could learn. The band’s adviser was Mrs. Laprise, the school’s band and choir teacher. She was asked about what she thought about jazz band being cut. She responded by saying, “I’m disappointed that Jazz Band wasn’t able to happen this year because our students have so much fun performing in this after school group!”

She also stated that, “It’s a great way for them to learn to play a new genre of music and get more experience playing their instruments….”Another question she was asked was, “why was jazz band cut” and she responded with, “There’s no Jazz Band this year because there unfortunately was no funding for it to happen. While we’re all working to have exciting and fun after school groups for our students, funding is a challenge that many districts face…”

She also hopes that the schools Jazz band will be back for the next school year along with many other students hoping the same. 

As a former Jazz band member I believe that this issue is something that is not a surprise as many school art programs get cut due to no funding. I also doubt that jazz band will return due to what has happened in other schools and art programs. However, I do hope that it will make a return as it teaches kids many things about music and teaches a new and different style that many schools don’t offer.

I also believe that the cutting of this program means that other programs are threatened and that our school may have less club offerings than ever before but we will just have to wait and see what happens to see if this is true or not. 

I interviewed Mr. Flanagan, the school’s ESL teacher, newspaper club adviser, and former jazz band member about what he thinks about having another art program cut. His response was, “It is incredibly sad to have another program cut. I had hoped to even have other kinds of bands like pep band and marching band come back, but instead it seems we are moving backward.”

This demonstrates that many people enjoyed the jazz band and were excited for the future of the arts in the school but now with the cut of jazz band that excitement has been lost. Arts programs are incredibly important to schools and the cutting of these programs are something that is unfortunately not unusual. There is still hope for the future though as the program may come back in the near future.