jazz education
Dealing With Fewer Resources Steve Sveum, WMEA State Chair, Jazz Education
“If only we had the staff, the money, the time, that we used to have, we could do so much, but…” How many times have those thoughts gone through my head the last couple years – whew! The reality is
that we are in tough times and pardon the pun, “Things ain’t what they used to be.” As I took a step back though, I thought to myself, but wait, we are offering more for kids now than ever before in the band/ music department. How can this be?
We were blessed to have two full time band directors at Sun Prairie High School for as long as I can remember, regardless
of the enrollment. For most of my career we also had a department secretary who tied up countless loose ends, made ar- rangements, booked hotels, counseled students, etc. – an invaluable resource to our department.
In the fall of 2010 we moved into a new grades 10-12 high school building – a wonderful facility – but as we were a grades 9-12 high school prior to the move, we lost some enrollment and lost the second band director and the secretarial position. How to maintain quality educa- tion with less human resource was the clear and present challenge.
Another issue was how to deal with going from three concert bands to two, knowing that some students who were in the middle
level band at the old school would not make it into the top level band at the new school and thus feel “demoted.” To com- bat this, we created, with the support of our principal, a chamber music program open to all band students, not just the top-level students. The pact was that they needed to be on time and practice and they would be a member of their chamber ensemble that would perform at concerts and other venues as opportunities arose. Who would direct these groups and how to pay?
The problem to some extent had already been dealt with in our summer marching band. We are indeed blessed to have many graduates of our marching band come back in the summer to work with the marching band. Why not bring back some of these same students to direct a chamber group or what about bringing in a private teacher of some of the students, perhaps even a col- lege music education major to direct one of these groups? District band directors from other Sun Prairie schools helped out as well. We did all of the above and with some seed money from the school district and some funds from the participating students, the program has worked wonder- fully in a time when you would not expect to be adding opportunities for kids.
Money, Money, Money
“There is so much we could do if we only had the money” – another recurring thought, but one that has necessitated cre- ativity. My philosophy on fundraising for the jazz ensemble has always been to raise money by performing rather than selling. We have a big band dance every year that raises a good amount of money. We have done raffles, businesses are always asked to death for money, but sometimes items are easier to procure than a flat out monetary donation. We have put together compilation CDs of various recordings that the students have made – even after purchasing the rights to do so, we have always come out way ahead on that.
40 April 2012
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