Gilroy
– Gilroy High School senior Stacie Jensen loves to sing. With
almost four years of GHS choir plus another three from Brownell
Academy under her belt, the 17-year-old alto will try next year for
a music scholarship to Brigham Young University.
Gilroy – Gilroy High School senior Stacie Jensen loves to sing. With almost four years of GHS choir plus another three from Brownell Academy under her belt, the 17-year-old alto will try next year for a music scholarship to Brigham Young University.
“Singing is one of those things you’ll use through your whole life,” she said. “It stays with you. I really like it.”
Jensen is one of 32 students in the high school’s Chambers Singers, an audition-only choir that performs several times throughout the year at various venues. Between Chamber, the women’s choir and concert choir, Jensen spends about 12 hours a week singing, and she has many friends who do the same.
In sharp contrast to the singers’ dedication is the reality that when school districts’ budgets become tight, music programs generally are the first to go. But thanks to fundraising and support from parents, district administration and the Gilroy Foundation, the music programs at GHS has managed to hold on.
“We have a very supportive administration and a very supportive parent group,” said Joey Fortino, the high school’s band director. “I don’t see the program being threatened. There’s always new things I’d like to do, but that takes more resources. And we don’t want to take away from the things we already have.”
Among the programs Fortino currently directs are the marching band, symphonic band, wind ensemble and jazz band. Fortino also teaches piano, guitar and music theory classes and indirectly oversees the wood and percussion ensemble, as well as the winter color guard.
Fortino said parent support plays a critical role in funding program needs. The booster club provides about $45,000 to $50,000 annually, he said, providing funds for marching band staff, transportation to events and other necessities.
The district’s annual allocation of $7,200 goes toward a variety of needs including instrument purchase and repair, which Fortino said is the band program’s most pressing need. The majority of the department’s more than 200 instruments were purchased between 1979 and 1983, Fortino said, with some dating back to the 1950s.
Provisions from the district account for a small percentage of the music program’s needs. And even though the programs have dodged major cuts, they haven’t been immune. In Fortino’s first few years at GHS, his program’s budget was $10,000. The reductions came once in 2002 and again in 2003.
Among the additions Fortino would like to see in the program is an orchestra as well as a mariachi band, which was alive and well at GHS about six years ago but since has dwindled.
Phil Robb, the high school’s choir director, said he’d like to reinstate the Festival Group, a large-group audition choir that faded a few years ago because of the time commitment. The group met before school on Friday mornings plus an additional evening per week, and Robb said many students had trouble attending rehearsal.
The Festival Group would comprise the high school’s sixth choir, joining the Chamber, the audition-only women’s group, concert choir, men’s chorus and women’s choir.
For now, Robb said his primary goal is to maintain the quality of the choirs already in place, as budget cuts pose an ever-present danger.
“Anytime you’re doing the arts, there’s a threat,” he said. “Some outstanding programs have been cut in this state because pennies are pinched. That’s the reality when it comes to the arts.”
The choir program receives $2,025 each year from the district, which Robb said goes entirely toward purchasing music. A single copy of music costs between $1.50 and $2, and about 35 copies are needed for each song. With about 25 songs in a concert, Robb said, it can add up to more than $1,000 per concert.
Student fundraising also helps throughout the year, one of the most helpful efforts being the Garlic Festival that brings the choir between $6,000 and $8,000 each year. Additionally, for the past 20 years, the Gilroy Foundation has helped fund the high school choirs’ travel expenses, including trips overseas the Chamber Singers has taken once every three years since the mid-1980s.
Both Robb and Fortino said a significant concern are the threats to music programs taking place at both the elementary and middle school levels. Revving up musical interest in high schoolers starts at the elementary level, they said, and if students aren’t exposed to music early, they won’t develop a love for it.
Between 400 to 500 of Gilroy students are involved in choir at the district’s elementary level, Robb said, but that number shrinks to about 100 among the three middle schools. The biggest hindrance has been staffing, although Robb said the district plans to hire a full-time middle school music director next year.
