Sean Corbett photo

Outraged by the Monroe Board of Education's decision to lay off music teacher Aron Barkon (the school district, like everything these days, has budget problems), many Masuk High School students held an after-school protest before a Board meeting Monday.

Students wore red, Masuk's school color, and brought their trumpets, flutes, saxophones, guitars, drums and other instruments and played the music Barkon taught them on Masuk's front lawn. Other students held signs and screamed, "Save the music!"

Senior Ed Woerner, who plans to study music at George Mason University in the fall, said, "I wouldn't be anywhere close to considering a career in music without Mr. Barkon. His intensity can not be replaced."

The layoff decision was based on seniority (Barkon worked there four years), and a Chalk Hill Middle School music teacher who's worked in the town for five years will replace him. Woerner says this will likely result in music cuts at the fifth and sixth grade level. He said, "Something like this is inexcusable."

Jockey Hollow School eighth grader Noah Kreski will attend Masuk next fall. "When they make these cuts," he said, "They turn to music because it's not required."

The night's meeting made no concrete decisions about Barkon, but the board said it might be able to offer Barkon a part-time position.

Traffic from a car accident on Monroe Turnpike slowed some folks from joining the protest, and when asked about the situation, a firefighter directing traffic offered this sobering comment, "Someone's got to get laid off, right? I was."