District decides West band director will spend most of his of time at high school

Wauwatosa West High School's band director will not be spread as thin next year as anticipated, a group of 25 parents and students learned Tuesday evening.

District officials have dropped plans to send Richard Smith to Madison Elementary School for a portion of the school day. However, he will spend 20 percent of his time teaching music lessons at Whitman Middle School.

The group had been vocal at recent School Board meetings about keeping Smith full time at West. They fear his time would be limited to plan for activities like parades and perform duties like selecting new music.

District officials said they are looking into additional staffing for the 2010-11 school year, which would provide more flexibility in scheduling and hopefully attract more students to sign up for band.