Budget deficits threaten Richmond High School’s thriving music program

Budget deficits threaten Richmond High School’s thriving music program

The program includes an orchestra, jazz band, marching band and wind ensemble, and is the only Title 1 high school in Northern California to offer such a program.

Budget Deficit Threatens Richmond High Music Program

A student practices as part of Richmond High School’s music program. (Courtesy of Andrew Wilke via EdSource) By Karina Ioffee EdSource When Andrew Wilke took over Richmond High School’s music program in 2014, there were seven participating students out of a school of more than 1,000. The music room, housed in a building built in 1953, had only a few creaky instruments, most of them decades old. “It was next to nothing,” Wilke recalls. “It was so…