Superintendent: Choir programs won’t be cut

Choir programs at Morgan City High School, Morgan City Junior High and Berwick Junior High will continue next school year, St. Mary Parish Schools Superintendent Leonard Armato said.

The Daily Review contacted Armato after social media posts expressed concerns over the future of the programs following news that the former choral director’s position was cut.

Beth Anne Dupuy, the former choral director at Morgan City High, Morgan City Junior High and Berwick Junior High, said Morgan City High Principal Mickey Fabre informed her May 21 that her contract would not be renewed for the 2018-19 school year due to budget cuts.

On Wednesday, Fabre said he did not want to discuss personnel matters, but did say that “the choir program is not being cut here at Morgan City High School.”

Fabre had to cut five positions due to budget constraints, and cut Dupuy’s position, which was part-time at the high school, he said.

“The bottom line is we have budget cuts that are due to the financial situation in the parish,” Armato said. “All schools have had to make different cuts to get within the budget numbers. But we are able to continue choir through our talented music teachers who will pick up classes during the day.”

Dupuy had worked for the St. Mary Parish public school system since 2001. Due to her termination at Morgan City High School, she will no longer be able to teach at the other two schools, either, she said.

Though school system officials assured the public that the choir programs will continue at all three schools, Dupuy questioned the sustainability of the programs going forward.

“I understand having to cut positions and cut teachers,” Dupuy said. “But when you cut a position that eliminates a program, that should not come from the power of just one man.”

Dupuy is concerned that there isn’t a “certified vocal teacher” in the parish to replace her.

School officials will be “overloading talented music instructors to fit choir into their daily routine,” she said. Choir instructors also have the responsibility of preparing students for festivals and auditions, Dupuy said.

“My observations and my evaluations prove that I’m effective,” she said. “And anyone with social media access can see the primary result of my effectiveness from students that have become productive members of society.”

Dupuy said she isn’t fighting to get her job back, but “will continue to advocate for choral programs in St. Mary Parish as well as other arts.”

Dupuy has received support from Morgan City High School choir alumni who were worried about the future of the choir program after her termination as director and contacted school system officials.

Susan Brumfield, a 1975 Morgan City High graduate and music education professor at Texas Tech, posted a letter to Fabre on the MCHS Choir Alumni Page on Facebook expressing her concerns over the direction of the school’s choir program.

From her understanding of the situation, Brumfield said she was concerned whether the teachers taking over Morgan City High’s choir program were properly qualified to be choral music educators.

Brumfield’s mother, the late Marlene Hendrix, was choral director at Morgan City High from the mid-1960s until her retirement in 1994.

“Choral music in Morgan City was my mother’s life work,” Brumfield said.

Brumfield urged Fabre to reconsider his decision to cut Dupuy’s position.

“If you reduce this program in the way that’s been proposed, you will lose it, probably for good,” Brumfield said in the letter. “I highly doubt that you will find anyone willing to go to the lengths your current director has gone to, to restore it.”

Dupuy hopes someone in the school system’s central office will advocate for choral music programs and find money to fund the programs.