Things are quiet — too quiet — in the schools of Laporte, Minn. (pop. 114).
The only music teacher in town — Louise Bass, who's been a music teacher for 34 years — has been put on "unrequested leave," and the music program has been eliminated. There's not enough interest in music anymore, the Bemidji Pioneer reports.
"The students are telling us with their feet," school board chair John Seegmiller says. "They're not signing up, so we decided that we probably need to go in a whole new direction to try and rebuild this program. We don't want to throw people in a program just to fill it if it's not working."
The high school music class is full, but that's only because more popular art and physical education elective classes are filled, he says.
In elementary grades, music will be taught by the regular class teachers.
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