You may not remember me or ever read this, but you’re awesome. The way you talked and acted reminded me of my band director from my middle school, Ms. Nicole Poulin.

I was your host at Miplitas High for Music in the Parks and I had great joy in helping you out.

Hopefully next year I will get to host with you again!

Also, keep on fighting for music! From the replies here, I can see that you are a very capable director.

Music=Life

1. “First of all the band was NEVER going to be removed.”

Fact: The new Principal stated in public (before being selected as Principal) to a group of Claremont parents and teachers at an SSC meeting that art and music should not be taking up space in the school day, but should be moved into the after school program where we could then hire NON -CREDENTIALED teachers at a much lower rate. Her exact words were “You people think this is a private school”.

2. “The student assignment desk did not have the names of the students who were supposed to be in band until after registration. You cannot put students into a class if no one knows they are supposed to be in it.”

Fact: The band and orchestra teacher, Ms. Briggs, submitted a list of student names for all incoming 6th, 7th and 8th graders who expressed interest in being in the 2009-10 music program at Claremont and the suggested placement for each student to the new Principal on July 26th, 2009.

Ms. Briggs has had the same recruiting procedure for the past 4 years. She asks current students to complete a survey at the end of each school year to see who will be in the band or orchestra the following year. She also gets the list of all incoming 6th graders from the district, adds them to her database and speaks to each elementary school music teacher about all of their students who are slated to attend Claremont. She notes what instrument each student plays, whether they can read music and any other pertinent information the elementary teacher recalls. Over the summer, she then contacts the family of each instrumental music student by phone or email to confirm that the student is indeed interested in continuing to play an instrument and sees that they are placed correctly. She THEN shows up at registration and again confirms that each student is still interested in being a part of the music program. This year was no different except that Ms. Briggs was not invited to work WITH the administration or the district in finalizing the master schedule of the placement of students this year. She has voluntarily assisted with many hours of scheduling students over the past 4 years to insure balanced and diverse classes. She offered to assist again this year several times at public meetings when the issue of scheduling came up. However, this year when she offered to volunteer, she was specifically told that she would not be allowed to participate in any scheduling of students.

3. “Until the district received the list of students, they put in music exploratory just to save the space.”

Fact: On August 8th, 2009 Ms. Briggs was informed that Claremont would only be offering “Music Exploration” during the day and was asked if she wanted to teach 1 period of band in the after school program. Ms. Briggs is a full-time, NCLB highly qualified, credentialed teacher with over 22 years of teaching experience and as such, declined to teach after school for 1 hour per day at $23 per hour.

Despite the drama… Yes, there WILL be band and orchestra during the school day at Claremont MIddle School this year. Thanks in large part to the efforts of this blog, the OEA (teacher’s union) and the many parents and community members who were outraged at the thought of dismantling the award winning Claremont music program. But be wary of what you hear about “the confusion” surrounding this whole incident. The fictional spin that is being put on WHY students were not scheduled into band or orchestra is interesting. And the manipulation of people who do NOT have the true facts by people in authority at the district who know the truth demonstrates what the true intent was all along.

I am a product of the S.F., Unified School District during the 50’s, 60 ‘s and 70’s. The educational scope was about the whole student, not just the core student. I remember electives being plentiful, e.g., I took advantage of music, various shops, and dance classes. Also, I started playing sports at the middle level, e.g., B-Ball and Track. I have lived in Oakland for last 19 years; I understand S.F.’s PS’s are parallel to Oakland.

Because for some reason $, $$$, 000, our kids in the urban schools don’t have the same public educational/electives opportunities as the suburban districts. Because someone thinks it all about the 3 R’s. I not saying let not offer rigor, but, if we continue to bore our children to deaf with the current pedagogical practices and not pay attention to the data, we’ll continue to see the dropout rate rise along with the crime rate. Music is great, but there are other electives to be included in the offering. Bring back the available Voc-Ed., and ROP program $, $$$, 000’s, to pay for the elective teachers. Whatever happened to our Academy programs and School-To-Career division?