March 30, 2004

The sun shines on school music program

Filed under: Art and About Changing the World — admin @ 3:27 pm

A year ago I wrote a column skewering Acalanes Union High School District superintendent Randy Olson and the Acalanes School Board for issuing preliminary layoff notices to district choral teachers. I had taken the news of those preliminary layoffs very personally. The day I heard, I called my husband at work in tears of anger, fear and frustration. He and I are both products of the choral music program at Acalanes and for each of us, singing at Acalanes was a highlight of our adolescence. One reason we wanted to raise our children within the district was so that they could one day participate in the wonderful arts programs these high schools provide for the students. To learn that individuals in decision-making positions might be undermining our past memories and our future dreams was very hard for me to take.

The layoff situation had a happy ending for the choral teachers. School board members emailed me and said that they were huge fans and ardent supporters of music education and did not want to see those programs crumble. Parents and community members stepped up to save the programs and the school board has since made public statements that the music programs at the high schools are of the highest priority for them to protect.

One year later, I find myself crying in joy and exultation that the choral programs in our high schools are alive and thriving, reaching higher heights than ever before. On March 20, I was privileged to be in the audience of Campolindo High School’s closing night performance of “Les Misérables.” I was looking forward to the show. Not only am I a “Les Miz” fan, but in the week leading up to this performance, I had been hearing a lot of buzz about how incredible the show was. Folks were emailing me, stopping me at the store, and calling to ask breathlessly, “Have you seen ‘Les Miz.’ I have covered theater in this area for six years but I have never experienced that kind of unsolicited enthusiasm for a show. It amused me that the epicenter of the buzz was a high school music program.

Categorizing Campolindo’s “Les Miz” as a mere high school musical is pejorative. The production was transcendent. The student talent on stage, in the orchestra pit, through the set design, and behind the scenes represented professionalism equal to and beyond most of the professional and semi-professional theater companies in Contra Costa. I don’t mean to belittle those other companies, but rather to underscore that our public high school kids are getting a musical education that puts them in the same league as many professionals. As a member of the larger community, I was very proud of Campolindo that night. I can’t even imagine what the students, their parents, the Campolindo staff and the community volunteers who worked to put that show together must be feeling.

And there was Campolindo’s director of choral activities, Gene Peterson, leading the orchestra and at the helm of this tremendous program. What would have happened if we had lost him last year to budget cuts? Thank goodness, we didn’t! I see Campolindo’s “Les Miz” as a victory celebration for arts education throughout the Acalanes District. Their ambitious musical production showed what our young people have the power to accomplish when a community and a school district make the arts a priority.

A line from “Les Miz” says, “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” I am so glad to be on the other side of last year’s dark night and warming myself under a radiant sun.

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