With less than two months before the scheduled opening of the
new Sobrato High School, rumors are flying around the community as
fast as construction workers are moving to make sure the necessary
buildings are completed on time. Parents and students alike have
expressed concern that there will be no music program at Sobrato as
promised. Some parents say they have heard only eight or nine
students signed up for music.
With less than two months before the scheduled opening of the new Sobrato High School, rumors are flying around the community as fast as construction workers are moving to make sure the necessary buildings are completed on time.
Parents and students alike have expressed concern that there will be no music program at Sobrato as promised. Some parents say they have heard only eight or nine students signed up for music.
Not so, said Sobrato Principal Rich Knapp on Monday.
“As of today, we have 34 students signed up for advanced band, jazz band and marching band,” he said. “My hope is that once I hire a director, he or she will call each of these students and invite them and their families to come in and talk about what they think is the best way to structure the program.”
Knapp said he has two sections set aside for music. He has offered the director position to two applicants within the district and is now looking outside the district.
“I hope to set up interviews with the five or so candidates on Thursday or Friday,” he said.
Assistant Superintendent Denise Tate, who is in charge of human resources for the district, said Monday that her department is in the “paper screening” stage of the process with the applicants. She confirmed that Sobrato will have a music program.
Knapp said work at Sobrato is progressing. The widening of Burnett Avenue is underway, and work continues on the campus.
“The walls in the band room are going up today,” he said. “The administration building already has carpet down and paint on the walls. We are getting close to furniture time.”
The classroom buildings are also getting close, he said. One of the buildings has floor tile down and cabinets in, and cabinets are going in the other today.
Sobrato has 685 ninth and tenth grade students with complete schedules as of today, Tate said.
She also said the rumor that students who chose to attend Live Oak High next year instead of their home school, Sobrato, during the district’s choice placement period in January would now have to attend Sobrato was false.
“All the choice placements that came in during the open window in January, fortunately we were able to approve all those placements,” she said. “However, at this time, the for choice placement is closed and it will only be open after school starts after we see the numbers of students. I’m sure you can understand the difficulty: when you start moving students around then you have to start moving staff around, and then you have chaos. There will only be students moved, after school starts, if there is room on the campus.”
