WAPPINGERS SCHOOL DISTRICT—The impact of the troubled economy landed right on the Wappingers school board’s doorstep Monday night as members of two groups came out in force to protest what budget-cutting measures have done to them.

Members of the district’s marching band and representatives of two local Chinese culture and language schools packed the Wappingers Junior High School auditorium and spoke for nearly an hour during a public comment period. The former were dismayed at the elimination of the band, while the latter were upset about a sharp increase in building usage fees.

The 40-member marching band, which comprises students from Jay, Ketcham, Van Wyck, and Wappingers Junior High, was among the items cut this year as the Board of Education sought to trim the budget in response to an anticipated state aid shortfall and the difficult economic times. Members were formally notified May 20, the day after the 2009-10 budget was approved by voters at the polls, that the band would not exist this coming school year.

Calling the band a “superb and unique asset,” parent Karen Vitek of Hopewell Junction pointed out that the group performs at a wide variety of community events, is a source of “priceless pride” to the school district, and is part of the reason that the WCSD was recently named among the 100 best communities for music education in the country.

Debbie Scales, a WCSD alum, offered the board a petition with 1,000 signatures requesting the reinstatement of the band.

“We are a win-win situation,” she said. “We look good for the district. We are the representatives of the district.”

As Scales spoke, her daughter Fiona, a John Jay High School senior and the band’s drum major, stood behind her in her red, white, and blue uniform, holding a trophy the band recently won at the New Hackensack Fire District’s 60th anniversary parade.

“We do the community a valuable service,” said the younger Scales to a standing ovation. “We’re all so loyal to this marching band and we want it back. We enjoy putting a smile on the community’s face.”

Wappinger resident Roger D’Aquino, a former instrumental music teacher who also served a stint on the school board in recent years, criticized trustees for eliminating the band without adding it to the list of potential cuts that was publicly distributed during board meetings about the budget. He predicted that such a cut is a harbinger of more of the same for the arts.

“It starts there and other non-mandated music programs will go next, one after the other,” he said. “What you don’t understand is the power of music. That’s what you’re missing. You cut and you cut and you cut and the kids are the ones who suffer."

Larry Hazard, himself a music educator, said he’s seen the band in action and called them “phenomenal. “Let’s keep the kids on the street doing their thing as awesomely as they do it right now,” he said.

During a second public comment period near the end of the meeting, after most of those in attendance had left, resident Paul Bode told trustees, “It’s obvious the community wants a marching band. You really ought to think that one over again.”

The board took no action on the marching band issue and the only other mention of it during the meeting came from trustee Joe Incoronato, who suggested that the board take $10,000 it was considering spending for a membership in the New York State School Boards Association and use it to reinstate the marching band.

Those involved with the two Chinese schools also took the board to task over a new building usage fee schedule adopted by trustees in March. The new schedule establishes a tier system that determines how much an organization pays to make use of district space. The two Chinese schools, the Mid-Hudson Chinese Language Center and the Huaxia School, fall under tier 6, the second highest-paying category on the list, and will be expected to pay $30,000 per semester, four times the former fee, for their weekly rental of classrooms at Ketcham High School

“This is a significant increase that would immediately disable our program,” said Bidan Zhang, principal of the Huaxia School.

Ann Costello-Rockrohr, whose two adopted Chinese daughters attend the Mid-Hudson Chinese Language Center, said the fee hike would mean the school would have to charge each student $300 just to pay the rent.

“We’re a non-profit,” Costello-Rockrohr said. “We sell snacks to the kids for 50 cents apiece. We’re not going to be able to come up with $30,000.”

One parent of Chinese school students admitted that he was angry with the board and said, “You are shutting the door to my kids to the Chinese school. I don’t know what the thinking of the school board is.”

Board president Douglass Bitteker defended himself and his fellow trustees by saying that the new fee schedule was developed by a committee, comprised of district staff, rather than the board itself. He said the new fees allow the district to break even in its building use costs and challenged the residents to see if they could find another site where they could use classroom space for less.

“If we’re that far off, come back and talk politely to us and we’ll work something out,” Bitteker said.