Officials will revisit spring concert date

The board also took a donation from the teachers union.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- Becky Myhal spent a lot of time looking through the Canfield School District's written policies to find the one that prohibits school activities on Sundays.
Myhal, president of the Canfield Choral Boosters, told the school board at its Wednesday meeting that parents are unhappy about the district's decision to reschedule the winter and spring choir concerts, which have been Sunday evenings for the past 12 years.
Myhal said Superintendent Dante Zambrini told her there was such a policy about Sunday events. She couldn't find it.
Myhal also said she was told that the local ministerial association doesn't want school events held Sundays.
So she said she and other parents canvassed pastors of local churches. They said it didn't matter, she told the board, because the concerts are at 7 p.m. and don't interfere with traditional services for many churches.
So why change the day when Sundays are working well, she asked the board. The two concerts are well-attended -- the winter concert in December, she said, was standing-room-only. It was not changed from a Sunday, because the district acknowledged there wasn't enough time to schedule the change.
Problem with schedule
The spring concert, though, is scheduled for May 19 -- a Saturday -- changed from May 20. Myhal said that after the change, seven seniors said they would not be able to attend. That's significant, she said, because seniors are honored at the spring concert. There are only about 20 seniors among the 175 students in the three choirs that perform at the concerts -- the One Octave Higher choir, the Chambers Ensemble and the Concert Choir. "We could have 100 percent attendance on Sunday," she said. "Let us maintain it. It's worked for years."
Board President David Moore told Myhal that the written policy she'd spent so much time trying to find doesn't exist. He explained that several years ago, the board directed Zambrini to scale back on Sunday activities.
Board member Martha Zarlenga said there was not so much a policy, but a "courtesy understanding" with the ministers. She said the district was also trying to be courteous to parents in the community.
Myhal said that her own church meets Wednesdays, and some churches meet Thursdays. "We can't be courteous to all," she said. "It's just two Sundays a year."
Moore said he'll ask Zambrini to revisit the issue with Canfield High School Principal Abby Barone and choir director Kelly Scurich.
In other business, the school board accepted a 1,000 donation from the Canfield Education Association, which is the teachers union, for the district's new Supplies for Success program. The fund was started by Canfield residents Paul and Jane Boucherle, Zambrini said, and buys items not normally supplied by the schools for students who can't afford them.
Operation Blessing, an organization that provides food to needy families, thanked the district for 18,184 items of food students recently collected.