In the recent days it has come to our attention that our beloved choir director, Mr. Aaron Kapaun, has been targeted as being expendable by the 2011-2012 budget cut committee; whereby his position as Henry Sibley Choir Director would be cut to halftime.
Mr. Kapaun currently teaches five periods of 9th through 12th grade choir, in addition to his diligently faithful commitment to before- and after-school hours extracurricular activities such as the Jazz Choir ensemble and participation in co-directing multiple school musicals over the past years with Mr. Dann Hurlbert. Under Mr. Kapauns direction, the School's choir program has received numerous superior ratings at State competitions. In addition, Mr. Kapaun has made many trips with outstanding junior and senior vocalists at Sibley to the yearly Dorian Festival held in Decorah, Iowa (Leading to multiple scholarship awards for students in the choral program).
Not only is Mr. Aaron Kapaun a great asset to our school and community, he is also a parent with a young family in this struggling economy. Reducing Mr. Kapaun's schedule to halftime would require him to seek additional employment just to make ends meet at home; putting much stress and pressure on a man who has essentially rebuilt and restructured Henry Sibley High Schools Choral Program into the largest student group at Sibley.
Moreover, by asking Mr. Kapaun to split his hours in half, the school will most likely lose him as a teacher entirely, knowing that he could not possibly keep the level of excellence in the Sibley Arts Program that he developed and maintained over the years.
As students and as members of the Mendota Heights community, we can fully appreciate the budget stresses we all are facing in these tough and difficult economic times. However, we, the undersigned, believe that more time and consideration of this decision could bring more suitable options into the budget cut decision-making process that would affect less of the student body. Without Mr. Kapaun, all the years of work put into rebuilding the Choir Program will be lost.
