'Sad thing for our kids:' Changes coming to beloved Surrey elementary band

The band at Surrey's Sunnyside Elementary School has racked up many awards over the years and its young musicians have wowed audiences with their ability to playcomplex pieces of music.

But parents fear that will no longer be the case due to changes coming to the Surrey school district.

"My kids don't go to Sunnyside. Ilive very far from it, but what a shame, what an utter shame," said Jackie Vuilleumier, who first heard the band at last week's Surrey school board meeting.

Shewas blown away by their ability.

"I just feel like this cannot go," she said, "we can't just kick programs like this out and replace it withnothing."

Come September, band will still be taught two times a week for 50-minute periods just like it is now but it will be taught from a common area like the school gymnasium.

The double classroom the program currently uses will be given to other teachers in order to meet the Supreme Court of Canada ruling on class size and composition.

Parents feel without a home base, the opportunity to practice will diminish.

"There is not going to be a place to have everything set up. In the 50-minutes they're going to have to set up, practice and take down," said saidMerandaVernhjak, whose three childrenall went through the program.

Years of overcrowding

The school has been grappling with overcrowding for years and with the new ruling the music teacher SusanHagen who has been inspiring students at that school since 1991 can no longer teach both the core music program for Grades K - 4 and the band program for the older children.

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She will split her time teaching atSunnyside Elementary School and several other schools.

"She uses her own time, she stays at school and does after school practices and lunchtime practices because she has a space in our school to do that," said Verhnjak.

Without a dedicated classroom, Verhnjak said, the teacher won't have a place for students to pop-in for practice or to store themany instruments.

"On her summer breaks, she has made multiple instruments that are too expensive to purchase. She has figured out how to make them," she said.

The elementary school also feeds into Semihamoo Secondary School, also known for its stellar music program.

The high school has been the training ground fora number of professional jazz musicians including Amanda Tosoff and Jodi Proznick.

But the Surrey school district said it wasn't practical to set aside a classroom for a program that is taught for less than two hours a week.

"We have to demonstrate that we are using our space as efficiently as possible, so before a hundred thousand dollars or more are spent on a portable, are we truly in need of a portable?" saidDougStrachan, communications manager for the district.

'Why did this happen?'

Alex Banarerhas a son whocurrently plays with the band anddoesn't understand why no one saw this coming.

"Why did this happen? Because someone didn'tsit and didn'tcheck that thousands of townhouses are being built around. That we will have in 1 years, 2 years, a lot of kids probably," he said.

The district saidmore schools are being builtand there are plans for others in the works. But building schools based on speculation is not always thesolution.

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"I think historically, the government has shied away from that sort of an approach because of stranded infrastructure, the cost of building schools and then having to close them because you didn't really need them is prohibitive," said Strachan.

"There is an issue of trying to strike a balance between having the schools there when you need them and having schools that you don't," he said.

The district is adding about 40 to 50 portables for the new school year to address the issues of overcrowding and to meet the new requirements.

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