San Luis Obispo High School senior Mary Kate Fidopiastis was in the middle of recording pre-screen auditions for college music programs when the group chat on her phone glowed with an ominous text.
“My friends who are on leadership with me, attended the SLOIMBA [SLO Instrumental Music Boosters Association] meeting, and they were messaging about it,” she said of potential school district budget cuts. “Initially, it was 100 percent of budget for all of the arts. So, my initial reaction was I honestly just couldn’t believe it, like I felt cold, and I started to cry, and I was very, like irritable, and it was just knowing that none of the programs, like any of the music programs, could exist without this money.”
San Luis Coastal Unified School District must cut $5 million for the 2026-27 school year to address its structural deficits.
One of the many reductions proposed by the Superintendent’s Fiscal Sustainability Committee for next year is $150,000 from the musical instrument budget, which put the future of Fidopiastis’ high school music program and its counterparts in Avila, Edna Valley, north Pismo Beach, Morro Bay, Los Osos, and other SLO schools in jeopardy. The recommended budget reduction stands to impact 750 students in the district who are enrolled in music and choir programs.
Music students like Fidopiastis, who’s the head drum major of the SLO High marching band, and their parents are concerned that the budget cuts aren’t equitable.
“We understand that sacrifices have to be made, and it’s not fun to make budget cuts like this, but being placed in a second tier of importance to bring back is not something that we can afford,” Fidopiastis said.
Pushback on proposed budget cuts is not new for the district. Parents and teachers convinced the school district board earlier this year to save school counselors from staff reductions and to retain the Transitional Kindergarten (TK) program.
But the district is strapped for cash because of the end of pandemic-era funding, a state requirement to continue offering TK without any funding support for basic aid districts, escalating pension contributions, increased day-to-day costs, and the loss of unitary tax revenue from Diablo Canyon Power Plant, which once brought in $10 million a year for the school district.
According to the district’s budget presentation on Nov. 18, the Fiscal Sustainability Committee comprising a mix of parents, principals, teachers, and representatives from three unions, placed all the recommended areas of reductions into three color-coded tiers—first to return, second to return, and last to return.
That means, if the district budget somehow recovers between January and June, the items in the “first to return” category would be reinstated first, followed by those in the second and then the last.
The $150,000 musical instrument budget fell into the “second to return” category, while $100,000 from the athletics budget and $60,000 in summer stipends for high school coaches are in the “first to return” bracket.
Fidopiastis and SLOIMBA President Kait Diringer plan on urging the school board to move the music budget up the ranks at the district’s Dec. 16 meeting when the board will vote on budget reduction recommendations.
“Without any money, we were looking at not even being able to buy parts for instruments that need repairs, like reeds and drumheads,” she said. “We have saxophones held together by hair ties.”
Through talks between SLOIMBA and Assistant Superintendent Ryan Pinkerton, who oversees business services, Diringer said the district has decided to keep $50,000 for music programs to clean and repair instruments and buy sheet music. Diringer added she would also speak up at the December board meeting about further lessening the proposed reduction.
SLOIMBA augments the music education programs for SLO High and Laguna Middle schools beyond district funding. Through fundraisers and donations, the booster program pays for additional expenses for students, including instruments, uniforms, traveling costs for competitions, leadership opportunities, and scholarships.
District funds are expected to cover instrument repairs and partial transportation costs, and a hit to the operating budget would make it difficult to keep providing those resources.
Diringer said that travel comes with a price tag of between $3,000 and $6,000, with a bus serving 50 students costing around $2,000.
“The competitions where students go to are kind of equivalent to football students playing Friday Night Lights,” she said. “[Favoring athletics over the arts] certainly has been a problem since I was in school three decades ago. It’s a little disheartening to see that’s still the case.”
Pinkerton disagreed with the notion that athletics are being favored over music programs and noted that no band or choir classes are proposed to be cut.
“Will this mean the boosters have to fundraise more to keep the current levels, maybe,” Pinkerton said via email. “Or the principal, teacher, and parents will have to prioritize expenditures through this difficult budgetary time the district is going through.”
The assistant superintendent added that athletics doesn’t make money for the district. Rather, what they charge for events are funneled into separate accounts overseen by students and coaches. It pays for the department’s expenses.
The San Luis Obispo Tiger Athletic Booster Club didn’t respond to New Times’ request for comment.
Pinkerton also pointed to arts funding through Proposition 28—the 2022 state initiative that requires schools with 500 or more students to ensure that at least 80 percent of arts and music funding must be used to employ certificated or classified arts and music instructors.
For SLO High student Fidopiastis, who views her band as a supportive community, the recommended budget cut sounds like a familiar story.
“My aunt, she’s a choir director in Connecticut, and she recently almost lost her job because of budget cuts,” the flautist said. “As someone who’s going to go into a music career in my future, it’s honestly pretty scary to see all of these cuts being made, because music … is not expendable. It’s something that needs to be taught because it brings people together.” ∆
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Dec 11-18, 2025.
Yes, the athletic budget must be preserved at all costs, even at the expense of the arts, library services, and even counselors.
Truly sad. Both of our children benefitted tremendously from their experience in band and choir at SLOHS. Even then, they had to have fundraisers to cover expenses.
The article says, “the district is strapped for cash because of the end of pandemic-era funding”… Why would the district expect pandemic funding when we are no longer in a pandemic? Were they relying on those handouts forever? Why wasn’t budgeting continued as it was pre-pandemic, when the music programs were intact?
Meanwhile, Ryan Pinkerton is earning over $300,000 in pay and benefits. Perhaps there needs to be some accounting of expenses at the top where some excess likely exists.