Patrick Baran has been the Orchestra Director at Adams Middle School in Tampa Florida for a grand total of 28 years. On Friday, he was told that his position was going to be cut, and that they would not be offering Orchestra as a musical outlet to the Title 1 community that so desperately needs it.

Mr. Baran started his teaching career at Adams Middle School. He has risen that program from its infancy and has more often than not earned Superior ratings at the state level for those 28 years. Just last year, the students were awarded with a District level Superior (something difficult to achieve in Hillsborough County Middle Schools), and yet after his servitude of dedicating himself to the arts, he was told that him along with his program will be no more.

We ask that you sign this petition in support of Mr. Baran and reinstating the thriving Orchestra Program at Adams MS. Especially in the year of COVID, where we started the school year with 10,000 students unaccounted for, this is not the year to suddenly start slashing teachers who have dedicated their entire professional life to one given school. Pressure on the Principal, Admin, and newly appointed Superintendent could very well motivate them to think differently this horrific change.