Nestled in the shade of Mount Diablo, the tallest peak in the Bay Area, is the Mount Diablo Unified School District, one of the largest in the state of California. It includes cities of Concord, Pleasant Hill, Clayton, portions of Walnut Creek, and Martinez; as well as unincorporated areas, including Lafayette, Pacheco, and Bay Point, with over 56 school sites and programs. It has long been a district that loves music, sporting dozens of award-winning bands, orchestras, choirs, and jazz bands.
Buy Tickets
2nd Annual Music-a-thon
Venue: Ygnacio Valley High SchoolCity: Concord
Date: January 15, 2011 10:00 AM
Price Range: $5 Adults, $3 Students. at the door
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Then, two years ago, budget cuts forced the elimination of instrumental music programs in the elementary schools. Like a great mountain, the crumbling of the program’s foundation might spell disaster that travels all the way to the top. But instead of accepting this decision, the various communities banded together to fight back. Now, dedicated parents, students, teachers, and the Mount Diablo Music Education Foundation are working around the clock to weather these and future cuts, fighting to save music in the schools. This is a story in process, and the end is far from clear, but to parents like Nancy Painter and her two kids, music education is everything.
“There are a lot of reasons I’m passionate about having music. When I see the social and emotional value that it bring to my kids, it’s very clear in my mind. They understand the connection between working at something and the joy of creating something that they have produced,” she says.
“Learning that early is an important value, but more important is the intrinsic value in music itself. I have this memory of my son picking up the saxophone in the elementary schoolyard and playing just for the sheer joy that he could get some sound out of it.”
Her son Will Painter, sophomore at Northgate High School confirms the life lessons that studying saxophone has brought to him: “What band gives people is the drive to say ‘I’m going to practice something, and accomplish it, and appreciate what I’ve done.’ I don’t give up easily now and it’s usually worth it.”
Nancy is on the band’s Booster board and loves music, in spite of having no training herself. She doesn’t want music education to become elitist, “with only the gifted and privileged able to play.” As it currently stands, parents are asked to cover the high costs of transportation for competitions and off-site performances, for example.
Music Is Elementary
In the recent past, kids typically began instrumental music in grades four and five, where they were introduced to instruments in “pull out” programs that focused on the basics. Once or twice a week, they formed small ensembles to learn how to play together. Such training prepared students to enter the strong middle school band program, and become quite accomplished by high school, often touring and playing competitions. Slammed by inadequate budgets and faced with hard choices, the district was forced to eliminate the program at the fourth grade level in 2009 and the fifth grade in 2010. The future of the upper grades is far from secure.
When the cuts were considered as early as 2004, parent and advocate Joan Miller wasn’t going to take it lying down. “Along with another parent, Diedre Wood, we organized weekly at School Board meetings. From that effort, I started 'Save the Fourth' and along with another parent group, we were able to fund fourth grade instrumental music the next year and MDUSD Board continued that funding until 2009,” she says. But the crisis wasn’t over. In 2009 when the axe fell, prominent band directors Gary Coartney at Concord High School and Greg Brown of Northgate High School asked Joan to serve as president of a new foundation, the Mount Diablo Music Education Foundation.
The initial goal was to raise enough money to fund the entire elementary instrumental program — a daunting $700,000. In their first year, they did not have nonprofit status, but were able to raise $100,000 through the district’s PTAs, working with all volunteers. A big chunk of it came from their first Music Marathon in Jan. 2010, with the whole community coming together to put on a concert and show their support. This year’s Marathon is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Jan. 15 at Ygnacio Valley High School, where they reasonably hope to raise $15,000. Says Joan, “Contra Costa County has a history of award-winning music teachers and their programs. We are driven to preserve these high educational standards for our kids and to save jobs for these excellent teachers.”
Pulling Out All the Stops
Teachers themselves are in the trenches trying to fill the educational gaps by giving what they can. Linda Snyder, beloved elementary school music teacher at Walnut Acres, even took an early retirement and continued giving lessons after school in an enrichment program paid for by parents. “In hindsight, I’m not sure that was a great idea,” says Linda. “It gave the district an out, and created some inequities at the middle school level.” The unevenness of experience coming into the middle school level is one consequence now felt by teachers at higher grades, including Greg Brown at Northgate. Missing the window of opportunity to start kids in music is the bigger concern. “There will simply be fewer students coming in. It’s harder to entice kids in middle school than a few years earlier since they get so absorbed in other activities by that age. Other priorities will keep them from investing in music, which is quite a commitment,” he states. Will Painter agrees, “I can imagine the number being half of what it is now.”
That’s why he and the Northgate marching band show up in full regalia to perform at the ice cream social for the kids at Walnut Acres, who follow them with starry eyes like the Pied Piper. The MDMEF is funding programs that introduce music at an early age. They’ve partnered with the California Symphony to bus students into the Dean Lesher Center for educational concerts and to organize workshops like instrument petting zoos. While the situation is far from ideal, passion and creative solutions are keeping music alive, and in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District, the band plays on. Please come and support the district in their Second Music Marathon.
Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011 starting at 10 am, Ygnacio Valley High School, 755 Oak Grove Road in Concord.