As Bledsoe cuts band, students ask for answers

Just as at the end of every semester, the Bledsoe County High School band will play in the gym tonight at 6.

But this time, after about an hour of orchestra arrangements and recognition for the departing seniors, the band members won’t know when they’re getting back together. Neither will their director, nor the director’s bosses.

The Bledsoe County Board of Education voted Monday to cut the band program for next year in an attempt to reconcile a scaled-back budget. Gone, too, is a teaching position at Cecil B. Rigsby Elementary and the general music program at Bledsoe County Middle School.

“We’ve had to make hard choices,” said Jennifer Terry, the county’s director of schools. “None of them are taken lightheartedly.”

Overall, she said, the school board had to cut about $130,000. She was not sure Thursday exactly how much money the county will save without the band program, and the school’s finance director was out of the office. Board chair Stacy Farmer did not return an email seeking comment.

Terry said a shrinking population is the culprit. Bledsoe County is a rural community with a population of about 13,600. The schools had about 1,650 students this year — a 10 percent drop from the 2012-13 school year.

“There’s not been a lot of jobs, not a lot of opportunity in the area,” Terry said. “Folks are moving away. Every year, we’re losing between 30 and 50 kids.”

With the population falls, she said, school funding drops. She wasn’t sure of the exact figure on Thursday.

But a general purpose school fund report on the school district’s website shows revenue actually has consistently increased. In 2012-13, according to the document, the school district received $14.1 million. In 2015-16, the revenue was up to $15.1 million. The proposed revenue for this year was $15.3 million.

Likewise, the district’s expenses stayed in line with the increasing revenue. Terry said the system has had to boost spending for various reasons, such as buying new buses.

Since Monday’s vote, some former band members and parents have rallied to try to save the program. Mason Angel, a 20-year-old Tennessee Tech student who once played tenor saxophone at Bledsoe County High School, started a Facebook page to keep the group informed.

He said a group hopes to attend the school board meeting June 5 at 6 p.m., hoping to get more information about why the program was cut.

“I understand this was all a budgeting deal,” he said. “Either the county commission needs to allocate more money, or money has to be shifted somewhere. It gets ugly when you’re talking about that. When you move money, someone else is losing money.”

Band director Frank Hudson did not return a call to his listed phone number. But Angel said Hudson’s influence has shaped several students, including himself.

Like the school itself, he said, the band is usually small — about 30 students each year. But they work hard, marching on the parking lot pavement throughout the summer. Angel said Hudson is tuned in to his students, knowing their strengths and their potential. When someone is slacking, he knows how to pick them up.

Hudson prepared students to work as a team and to perform in front of crowds. At Friday night football games, they played in front of a couple hundred people. But a couple of times, they played for thousands as guests at Nashville Predators games. Hudson would pull students aside before their performances and tell them they were as prepared as they needed to be.

“They way he talked to me and some other students,” Angel said, “I thought I was Mick Jagger.”