Endowment will help rejuvenate program
Gilroy – Elementary choir will receive top billing as Gilroy school administrators deliberate over how to spend the Connells’ $1 million gift, say school administrators. The endowment is expected to generate about $58,000 a year for vocal music programs.
“Primary choir is one of our highest priorities, as we look at the funding,” said Jacqueline Bosch, assistant superintendent for educational services. “By fifth grade [when students have choir programs] it’s almost too late.”
Music died in Gilroy elementary schools in the mid-1990s, as budget cuts forced arts programs under the knife. Today, says Gretchen Vandenberg, a retired music specialist, the situation is dire.
“I asked a little boy to sing for me, and he said, ‘I don’t know any songs,'” she recalled. Vandenberg worked in Gilroy schools for 30 years before retiring this spring. “An 8-year-old child who doesn’t know a single song certainly doesn’t have joy in his heart.”
Though wealthy kids still take private music lessons, she added, their poorer classmates are often left tuneless.
The lack of elementary programs also has wounded junior high and high school music programs, said Phillip Robb, choir director at Gilroy High School. Choir enrollment has dropped 25 to 30 percent since 1999, he said, when 200 students joined in song. Today, only 150 students participate.
“By the time a music teacher in fifth grade asks them to sing a song, it’s like pulling teeth,” Robb said. “They don’t want to be embarrassed by making a mistake … But sit down with a group of kindergartners, and they’ll jump right in.
The Connells’ gift, by itself, can’t fund a whole new elementary music program, said Olivia Schaad, director of curriculum and instruction. Vandenberg estimated that hiring a single music specialist would cost the district $50,000 a year, including salary and benefits. Not just anyone can teach music, Vandenberg added: Many California teachers aren’t trained in it, and some didn’t take music classes when they were in school.
The fund “won’t take care of all eight elementary schools,” agreed Bosch. “But without the money, we don’t have the foundation on which to build.”
The grant may help the district secure state and county funds, by allowing schools to pilot programs and show their success. Money follows money, explained Bosch, and the district hopes to leverage the Connells’ generous gift for more government funds. One state block grant, offered for physical education and music programs, could rake in $153,000 each year for the department.
Schaad, Vandenberg, and Katie Larsen, a third grade teacher at Antonio del Buono Elementary School, will guide a long-term strategic planning process, mapping out a five-year plan for using the funds. The trio were nominated by Gilroy teachers to represent arts at the elementary level, and are heading to the Santa Clara County Office of Education to learn more about strategic arts planning.
On Oct. 18, they’ll kick off the planning process, with parents, teachers and administrators joining in a two-day workshop to develop a vision, study obstacles, and create a timeline for new music programming.
Together, Schaad, Vandenberg and Larsen have already held three focus groups, speaking with elementary music teachers, K-12 arts instructors, and principals to gather input and ideas.
Elementary choir tops the list, but it’s only one of many potential uses for the funds. Other needs include new instruments, upgraded textbooks, and an instrumental music program for fourth and fifth graders.
Putting the music back in Gilroy schools may take some creative scheduling, added Bosch.
“Time is going to be an issue,” she said. “We have limited time with the kids, so we’ve got to think outside the box.”
For instance, elementary school students currently go home early on Wednesdays. Instead of taking the bus, said Bosch, kids might stay and sing. Fourth and fifth graders might spend another hour in school, to pick up an instrument or a songbook.
But the halls won’t be alive with the sound of music for a while: Some state funds won’t be available until spring, and it’ll take until fall 2007 “for a really good plan,” said Schaad.
Vandenberg can’t wait. Music helps children learn language, she said; it exposes them to other cultures; it coaxes reluctant students to school.
“Music helps give meaning to life,” she said. “When children do music, they’re changed.”
