Recently, the Fine Arts program has been a topic of discussion among many students, who are concerned about the program’s future. However, everyone is trying to make the best of it and still uphold their recent successes.

The New Ulm Public Administration has recently been discussing nearly $2 million in budget cuts for the 2026-2027 school year, driven by a three-year deficit caused by declining enrollment and rising costs. However, the fine arts program will most likely see the largest chunk of the cuts.

After the choir teacher, Mr. Olson, had to step down for personal reasons this past school year, the choir class has been led by numerous subs until a long-term sub was hired.

Abigail Schmitz was hired as the long-term sub and has experienced a unique few months.

An idea from the school’s administration was that, instead of fully eliminating a music teacher position, the school would reduce it from two buildings to one equivalent full-time teacher. “I know that’s not a very popular opinion among the music staff,” Schmitz said.

However, there was discussion of a different plan that would have had “one person directing band and choir, which was a thing for a couple of years, and the program really suffered because spreading one person that thin is just gonna break a program a lot quicker,” Schmitz said. “As things stand right now, we don’t know what’s going to happen next year.” There is still a lot of confusion and uncertainty looming around the school.

However, the current seniors have “stepped up and started to kind of lead everything. They helped out the younger students when they could. They got superiors [at the annual MSHSL contest], as you can see, but I didn’t have anything to do with that. No choir director had anything to do with that,”  Schmitz said.

“It’s so incredible, their drive and their work ethic, it makes it really easy to fall into the music and kind of show them my own love that I have for the arts.”

Schmitz is hoping this situation is not permanent. “Look at the psychological effects on the minds of children and young adolescents. If you look at the test scores and things like that for music students versus non-music students, they’re higher in music students. 
You’re developing that important part of your brain that does critical thinking and problem-solving. It’s important for your development. So it really kills me to see the fine arts being cut across the country. 
And that’s not to say it’s just the fine arts. It’s everywhere that’s getting cut for everything, but fine arts is definitely going faster than other things because people don’t see it as essential. When it really is essential.”