Twelve positions eliminated, anger at the Aveyron Conservatory after “several years of improbable governance”

Will the Conservatoire de l’Aveyron stop shining? This Tuesday, after a “Death Ring” on the trumpet, the teachers of the Conservatoire à rayonnement département de l’Aveyron (CRDA), at the call of the SNEA-Unsa (national union of teachers and artists) and the CGT, organized a sit-in, in cathedral silence, accompanied by Mozart’s Requiem. The teachers, but also former students and parents of students protested against the threats weighing on this establishment, created in 1988, by “elected officials who placed culture at the center of the department’s attractiveness”, recalled Florence Charron, departmental secretary of the SNEA-Unsa.

It is true that the music school’s union committee has already made decisions this summer. Decisions that it intends to implement to get out of a financial crisis dating back to 2012. This financial recovery will involve the elimination of 12 fixed-term contract staff positions, the non-replacement of retirements, the non-compensation of part-time work and consequently the disappearance of the teaching of certain instruments (diatonic accordion, organ), but also of early music. A situation that leads to “sorting” between students and favoring children to the detriment of adults, in learning. This decline would result in a gradual disappearance of rural branches, “breaking with the equality and continuity of territories,” the teachers emphasize.

“New financial crisis”

In her speech, Clémence Aguila, harp teacher and CGT staff representative, highlights the consequences of “a new financial crisis, despite this supervision by the Department”. The union committee had ordered an audit in 2022 to see things more clearly. One year and €50,000 spent later, the conclusions of the said report would have been useless. The consequences of this management and “several years of improbable governance” have other consequences on the daily lives of the agents (lower demands due to the deterioration of the structure, disorganization of instrumental ensembles, fragmentation of timetables, suffering and violence in the face of the deterioration of the Conservatory, etc.).

But maybe all is not lost?

Because in parallel with the teachers’ demonstration, a meeting was held in the morning inside the CRDA between the Union Committee and the elected representatives of the department. On the agenda, the vote on the budget. “This is actually a decision to amend the budget. The elected representatives unanimously voted for an increase of €470,000, bringing this initial budget from 2024 to €4.51 million,” says Dominique Gombert, president of the joint union. However, she confirms the elimination of fixed-term contract positions for the 12 agents, the non-renewal of retirements and the non-compensation of part-time work.

“We are also going to reduce the cultural programming, marginally,” she emphasizes. These decisions will contribute to “making a transition year to better think about a viable economic model,” she says. The budget increase has not been easy for all the municipalities. “In Bertholène, we went from €8,000 to €21,000 in contributions. It is a big step, especially since it is being carried out in a complicated context for the municipalities, but it is our way of saying that we care about the Conservatory. We are happy to have been able to develop the orchestra at our school, with 25 children and three music teachers, who perform every Thursday,” recalls Christine Presne, mayor of the municipality.

Comments confirmed by Dominique Gombert. “I recognize that the Conservatory has great difficulties and it is even courageous to kick in there, but what is certain is that there is a real desire on the part of the elected officials to keep it.”