By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Wrtier

Hawai'i's band teachers will march on the Board of Education tonight.

And what they have to say likely won't be music to board members' ears.

The state's band and music directors are taking issue with the board's recent decision to require science in every year of middle school.

The music educators don't have a problem with an increase in academics but don't like the fact that board members made no provision to require schools to keep elective periods as well.

They fear the outcome will be that middle school band, music and art programs will get killed across the state when the science policy goes into effect for the 2004-2005 school year.

Or worse, the elective programs will try to cannibalize one another to survive.

"It's a tragedy when the electives have to fight amongst themselves for time in the school day," said Ken Sato, band director at Pearl City High School. "We have so little time given to us in the first place."

The O'ahu Band Directors Association, which represents dozens of band directors in public and private schools, hopes to be out in force at the board meeting at 7 p.m. today at Stevenson Middle School. They'll argue that music education encourages discipline, motivation and creativity, as well as helping turn out a well-rounded student who generally has a higher grade point average than other students.

But school board members approved the changes last month at a meeting on the Big Island in response to rock-bottom science test scores from Hawai'i students.

Hawai'i consistently scores among the lowest of states in the National Assessment of Educational Progress science test.

In 2000, nearly two-thirds of eighth-graders scored below basic proficiency in science, and nearly half of the state's fourth-graders scored below basic levels.

A 1996 survey showed only about 30 percent of Hawai'i middle-school students were taking science, compared with more than 90 percent nationally.

The policy requires Hawai'i middle school students to take science in sixth through eighth grades. It is now required only in the sixth and seventh grades.

Middle students will also have to take and pass social studies in the seventh and eighth grades. Currently, they take social studies both years but are required to pass only one class to advance to high school.

Band directors first heard of the proposal in November, but say they never had a chance to speak to the school board.

"We notified many people in the state offices that we wanted to have input," Sato said. "We knew this could be a touchy situation. Electives in general have been gradually squeezed out of the schools. We have nothing against students succeeding in the so-called core academics, but we think we're academics, too. We've been cut out of the process."

One major obstacle for the band directors is likely to be the contract between the state and the teachers union. Under provisions of the contract, teachers at each middle school may choose whether to have six or seven periods a day.

Most schools choose to go with a six-period day, and only a handful of schools already have adjusted their schedules to allow for the additional science classes along with electives. Teachers must vote to approve the additional seventh period in the day.