Sep 9 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Because of budget cuts at a California school, band students are in need of instruments which the board was not able to get, buying desks and pencils instead.

With the interest in music on the rise at the Arcade Fundamental Middle School in Sacramento, and the funding for school supplies and educational programs at an all time low, there are simply not enough band instruments for all of the kids, according to the music teacher, Donna Pool, as told to ‘The Sacramento Bee’.

“We currently have about 15 to 20 students playing pencils because we don’t have any more instruments to pass out,” she told the newspaper. There are fifty more students this year than normally enroll in the school’s music program, reaching a total of 190 kids.

So the school is now reaching out the the community to ask for public donations of musical instruments in any condition. They are asking for clarinets, flutes, trumpets, and saxophones. The students are literally playing pencils in the place of these instruments. Pool added, “We currently have about 15 to 20 students playing pencils because we don’t have any more instruments to pass out.”

Those interested in helping can call Pool at 916-971-7300.