During the course of summer break, several of the teachers who were scheduled to teach the after-school strings classes accepted full-time employment in other districts. By early August, Olentangy had eight buildings without strings teachers. District administrators and building principals conducted an exhaustive search to fill these positions – including contacting local universities and posting the positions with the Ohio Music Education Association – but we were unable to find enough teachers to meet the district’s needs. That’s when we turned to our high school strings teachers. While they were willing to take on the additional duties of elementary strings, their after-school schedules were already filled with high school events. We worked with the high schools to create a schedule that would allow them to work with the elementary students for a similar amount of time as had been expected with the original after-school strings structure.
We regret the inconvenience that this scheduling change may cause for our families. We also hope that the students who aspire to continue their musical career with the district will benefit from receiving instruction directly from our high school teachers.