The Music Center has had to make some very difficult budget decisions to prepare for the new fiscal year starting July 1, 2009. As you can imagine, we are anticipating lower revenue in all areas that support our work in education -- school program fees, corporate support, foundation support, and gifts from individuals. With the strong leadership of our board, we have developed a budget that preserves all our core programs. This will allow us to continue our vital leadership role in support of arts education and produce the very best in family programming. To achieve all this and still balance the budget, we have had to scale back expenses in all areas. Sadly, one of these areas is the size of our staff. We began this year with 28 full-time staff, cut four positions back in November, and will end the year with 20.

In the face of fewer staff positions, we have reorganized the structure of our school programs team. We created three new positions, called “Regional Program Managers.” These positions will focus on proactive outreach to develop and implement new partnerships with more schools and districts. A fourth new position – Music Center on Tour Coordinator – has been created to focus more attention on assembly performances. All current staff were provided an opportunity to apply for these new positions. Not all staff chose to apply.

As a result of these staffing reductions, the following people will be leaving the Music Center, effective June 30: Traci Cho, Kristen Engebretsen, Denise Grande, Shannon Howard, Darlene Munnings, Malu Ortiz and Clare Schulberg. These colleagues have made invaluable contributions to our work and are beloved members of the Music Center family. We will miss them more than I can express in a few words.

In addition to all their many talents, the departure of these colleagues means the loss of their invaluable relationships with our roster artists and school partners. While we will work hard to bring the remaining staff up to speed, I recognize how much these terrific people will be missed. I hope you will reach out and support the continuing staff so we can continue to make a difference for students and teachers.

Going forward, the staff for school programs will be as follows, Leonardo Bravo, Director; Marlene Leuenhagen, Associate Director, and Patrice Cantarelli, Regional Programs Manager. We will soon announce the selection of two other Regional Programs Managers, as well as a Music Center on Tour coordinator.

In spite of these very difficult staff reductions, we remain committed to our work in schools. In fact, we plan to expand and intensify our outreach to build new partnerships and secure work for the wonderful performing and teaching artists on the Music Center roster. In spite of the horrible budget crisis, we are already in conversations with several school districts to implement large-scale projects in the new year. We plan an exciting “Showcase of Artists” on October 20. By that time we expect more schools will have a handle on available budgets for the new school year.

We remain dedicated to serving the schools of Los Angeles County and providing students and teachers access to the highest quality arts learning. The budget changes will require all of us to go the extra mile to get the job done. But I am confident that my remarkable colleagues will rise to the occasion. In fact, we all believe the work we do to engage kids in the arts is more needed than ever.

Please feel free to contact me at mslavkin@musiccenter.org or 213 972-3310 should you have questions or concerns about staff changes, finances, or any other aspect of our work.

Sincerely,

Mark Slavkin Vice President for Education