Parents speaking at Monday's West Washington School Board meeting criticized the board's decision to discontinue the elementary music program next year.

The move is a cost-savings measure as the corporation struggles to cope with deep budget cuts.

Parents told the board students who have art and music do better academically and said they need something they can enjoy and have fun at.

Parents also questioned the board about its plans to offer Spanish at the elementary. The parents present were not in favor of the idea.

Superintendent Gerald Jackson said Tuesday that, "Youngsters, in the board's opinion, need to learn Spanish." He said he recently saw a statistic that indicated Hispanic persons will become the majority population-wise in the United States this year.

"I think the board is being foresighted," he said. "Any place I go, besides downtown Millersburg, half the people are speaking Spanish."

Jackson said plans on class logistics have not been confirmed yet.
He also said the board believes it would be beneficial to offer Chinese at the high school level, but that is only in the discussion stages.