Madison's strings program is still in limbo and now another district is making cuts to music. Several teaching positions are being eliminated at Baraboo schools and more than half-a-dozen bands and choirs will no longer be offered at the high school. Students asked the school board to reconsider the cuts at a meeting last night.

Baraboo's School Board is dealing with a $1.3 million deficit next year, since its five year, $7.5 Million referendum failed last month. That has teachers, parents and students on a sour note.

High School Senior Adam Lowe is heading to college for music education and hopes to someday direct a collegiate band.

"I had my acceptance letters from Eau Claire, Kansas and Penn State and ripped them up in front of the school board and said without this music department I wouldn't be able to do what I want to do with my life," says Lowe.

Baraboo Schools Superintendent Lance Alwin admits the music department will bear the brunt of its budget cuts. One instrumental teacher will be eliminated and two full-time choir teachers will have to go part-time.

That means no more marching band, treble choir, chamber choir, madrigal dinner, high school musical, pops concert or solo ensemble. Teachers are worried students at the middle school level, just learning to play, won't get the attention they need.

"A lot of those kids will quit unless they can get some individual attention," says District Music Supervisor Rick Meiller.

Lynn Gunnell is one of the teachers forced to go part-time next year.

"I didn't work for 15 years and build this program up where I wanted it, to be put back to a first year teacher's job," says Gunnell. "I think that is happening all over the state that music just seems to be an easy thing to cut."

Superintendent Lance Alwin says make no bones about it, he's unhappy, too. Alwin says the choice to make music a top priority isn't his to make. He says standards enacted by federal legislation, including "No Child Left Behind," have forced schools to prioritize math and science.

"We would like to focus on what the broader scope of learning is about, but we also recognize if we don't, they will pull money from us," says Alwin.

Without another source of revenue, such as a referendum, administrators say even the basics may not be safe after next year.

"The bloodletting in terms of deconstructing our educational programs has only begun and you can hear the pain and anguish from the parents about it already," says Alwin.

So why aren't things like sports taking such severe cuts? Well, teams in Baraboo are for the most part, self-funded by student fees and private groups. Lance Alwin says he would support a similar type of sponsorship for the music department, but it could only be a temporary fix.