The Prairie Spirit School Division in the rural communities around Saskatoon has decided that because of budgeting, there will no longer be a band program in place for the 2015 school year and for years to come. As a band student in this school division, I know first-hand what kind of effect this has on myself as well as current band members, and future band members. Due to 'low numbers' we are seen as a curricular program that can be cut, without any input from the students currently in the program, students who plan to be in the program, or parents involved. Band is somewhere people feel accepted and where we can express ourselves through music and work as a team. Through building strong relationships we have learned to trust each other with anything that comes as a struggle for us. By taking away this program from us, our school division has taken away something we are passionate about, and altered our education options, putting a restriction on future career possibilities. This has effected the Prairie Spirit West, and the Prairie Spirit East bands. Please sign this in hopes of keeping our band program alive. Feel free to say why YOU believe band is important.

Follow me on twitter @shawna_langer where I will update as often as possible on what is going on. (not trying to get followers, simply made a twitter for convenience of this)

**Edit: I removed the content of my most recent edit, as I have learned more about the situation from both government information, school division information, and public information. When the government was questioned, they stated that they have raised our school division's income considerably over the past years, currently being at 103 million dollars. They stated that in comparison to our population growth, they have given us more money than should be expected. In contrast, the school division says that they are down 7.1 million dollars. Now with this information in mind, there has also been a great deal of inflation in our province, and country in general. Costs have increased for all supplies that are needed to be purchased by the school division over the years, as well as teachers' pay raises continuously growing. This on top of our population growth, would suggest that the government should perhaps be funding our school division more. Also, in comparison to Saskatoon city schools, we are receiving a large sum of money less per student. This being said, it is the school division's responsibility to manage their budget, and I believe that their decision was unjust, and not beneficial to the students. There is an informational meeting at Delisle Composite School in Delisle on June 8th, from 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm (although I believe it will likely go later) for information from the school division... I hope to see many people there, and thank you all for your support.