When Joey Fortino was handed the keys to the Gilroy High School
band room 11 years ago, he remembers feeling lost. But he soon
found his comfort zone and guided hundreds of students through
years of music making and on to successful careers. Now that the
music program is taking a turn for the worse, he’s feeling lost
again in a district that doesn’t seem to value music, he said.
When Joey Fortino was handed the keys to the Gilroy High School band room 11 years ago, he remembers feeling lost. But he soon found his comfort zone and guided hundreds of students through years of music making and on to successful careers. Now that the music program is taking a turn for the worse, he’s feeling lost again in a district that doesn’t seem to value music, he said.
For the first time in more than a decade, Fortino, 34, will begin a new job in a new district. Los Gatos High School will gain a valuable band director in the fall and GHS will have to find a replacement. The move has nothing to do with money, Fortino said, rather, job security. Working at the equivalent of 1.20 full-time positions, he earned $94,863 in salary and benefits this past school year, according to a district salary chart. His salary at Los Gatos has not yet been finalized, said Dee Towner, human resources supervisor at the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District. The district is still waiting on verification of his years of experience and education level, she said, but the salary range for a 12th year teacher based on last year’s figures runs from $77,823 to $94,459 plus a $12,000 benefits package and a $3,000 band director stipend.
Salary isn’t the problem, he said. With a shrinking pool of students to select from, Fortino recruited only 16 freshman this year when he used to attract closer to 30.
“Extrapolate that over four years, add in the reductions to the middle school bands because of a mandated second math class for most students, the loss of fifth grade band and soon a second high school and I have a very large job security problem,” he wrote in an e-mail to the Dispatch. “We worked very hard to recruit students this year and it didn’t work. I just can’t fight it here anymore.”
Fortino has spent the last few months struggling to garner support for his beloved program. His decision to move on was one of the most difficult he’s had to face, he said.
“I was an emotional wreck,” he said.
Heartbroken but understanding of his decision, his pupils aren’t sure what to expect next year.
“He’s like a dad to many of us,” said Emily Crocker, 16, a clarinet player. “We’re sad he’s leaving. Nobody will be able to replace Fortino.”
Others agreed that Fortino was a father figure when the band traveled on their many long trips to places like Boston, San Antonio and Southern California.
“He’s an awesome teacher,” said Zuleima Gonzalez, 17, a percussionist. “He pushed us even though we hated him for it. He made us better. He was like our dad.”
But with two young children of his own – a 7-year-old daughter named Jenna who’s already an aspiring violinist at Antonio Del Buono and a 4-year-old son named Daniel who gravitates toward the drums in his dad’s band room – Fortino can’t stick with a dying program.
“The program is bleeding,” he said. Current circumstances are making it increasingly difficult for students to take band at GHS, Fortino said.
During his tenure at GHS, Fortino nearly doubled the size of the band program, bringing participation to peak numbers in 2002 with about 120 total students in the program, he said. Also in 2002, Fortino led his band to victory at the Western Band Association Class A Championships. They took first place, the band’s first major win in 10 years.
A member of GHS’s Class of 1992, Fortino hates change and sees his future as “one big question mark.” But he’s looking forward to joining a program that’s growing in Los Gatos. He’s already visited the school and met some of his future students and is reassured by the show of support for music both in the district and the community at large. A Los Gatos ballot measure passed with 83 percent support in the last election, allowing the district to use parcel tax revenues to support programs like art, music and small class sizes, Fortino pointed out. Taking his talent to Los Gatos is “probably a good career move,” he said.
“I completely understand his position,” Trustee Denise Apuzzo said. “But this is a huge loss to the district.”
Although supportive of a parcel tax to fund salaries and programs, Apuzzo recognized that it would be shortsighted for the board to ask the community to support a program that isn’t going to be accessible to all the students in the district. The band program will only be available at the middle school level to sixth graders who opt to participate in practice before school and seventh and eighth graders who score between the proficient and advanced level on standardized math tests.
“I don’t at all think that should be a prerequisite,” Apuzzo said of the math requirement. She said the board’s top priority is to reinstate the band program at the elementary school level, a cut she voted for but only to save the physical education program. She hopes the board will work together over the summer to come up with alternative ways for middle school students to take band next year.
“Band, choir and fine arts are academic subjects,” she said. “Some people in the district are losing perspective of that.”
Fortino’s colleague and friend Phil Robb couldn’t agree more.
“He (Fortino) doesn’t want to be on a sinking ship,” said Robb, the GHS choir director.
“We have lost the best band director this district has had in my 27 years of teaching in Gilroy,” he wrote in an e-mail to district staff. He went on to question the district’s decision to double time spent on math and cut music. “I am committed to teaching the total student,” he wrote. “Instead of going for the quick, short term fix, let’s take a look at long term and the total 12-year package of what we are investing in the children that have been entrusted to us. Are we producing well-rounded, balanced students? Or robots that can compute?”
Like Fortino, Robb also sees the number of incoming freshmen shrinking every year due to lack of pervious exposure. Instead of attracting the usual 15 men for his Chamber Choir, he had six this year. Frustrated by the numbers, he’s even more discouraged to lose a valuable colleague.
“As I see my colleague, former student and good friend walk out the door and head to Los Gatos, I need to vent and cry out that we have made a huge mistake that will take years to recover from if at all,” he wrote.
When Fortino conducted his final concert of the year, each one of his musicians handed their director a carnation. Arms laden with flowers, Fortino said that half of his band was in tears, including himself.
“I love this community, school and students and it was a very long decision-making process filled with anger, tears, resentment, pleadings and prayer,” he said. However, he feels his decision to leave the district before it doesn’t need him any more is sound. He and his wife Renee will keep their family in Gilroy and he plans to keep in touch with his former pupils, whom he still cares for deeply. “I love this program. But I can’t sit around and wait to be laid off.”
