East High parents and students petition over proposed staffing changes

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — A group of Sioux City East High School parents and students voiced concerns Wednesday night about changes being proposed by district leaders regarding staffing inside the vocal music department.

The parents and students organized a drive-thru petition campaign on the Morningside University campus. They said planned staff reductions in the East High vocal music department, combined with schedule changes for high school teachers next year, will greatly impact students.

Parent leaders said they’ve followed the process set by the district to communicate and collaborate with administration and board members to get to an acceptable solution. However, so far, efforts have not provided any results.

“My parents open enrolled me to East specifically to do choir and show choir because I fell in love with it super young,” junior Isabella Nilles said. “I knew it was always going to be part of my life. It’s building relationships, not even just singing, and it’s a lot more work than people really think it is.”

“Well, I think this is very important because all of my kids were music kids and not necessarily athletic kids,” Sioux City resident Lynn Frerichs said. “It kept them so connected to school and kept them going every day and bring so much joy to everybody.”

East parents told KCAU 9 that the school district plans to utilize balanced vocal music staffing at all middle and high schools during the 2024-25 school year. The numbers don’t add up for one concerned parent, though.

“When you look at the enrollment numbers in vocal music at East Middle and East High, it’s very large,” parent Christie Finnegan said. “There are high enrollment numbers. And so the numbers do not justify how many FTEs they are going to do, the number of teachers. And so it is concerning that you are taking one of the gems that East is known for and jeopardizing it.”

According to Finnegan, regular curriculum music classes might not see much impact from the proposed changes, but extra-curricular programs like show choir would likely suffer. She said the group hoped to collect 500 signatures, guaranteeing the issue would be on the agenda of the next school board meeting.

KCAU 9 reached out to Sioux City Community School District board president Jan George about this issue. In a statement, George said:

The board of directors have heard the discussion and concerns raised about music department staffing. We understand families from East High School have organized a petition event tonight, however regardless of that event, the board is committed to discussing this topic at the May 13 board meeting and will be including it as a discussion item on the agenda.

Board president Jan George

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