Former Morgan Hill music teacher John Bremis tapped a white
stick against a music stand as he directed about 20 students.
MORGAN HILL
Former Morgan Hill music teacher John Bremis tapped a white stick against a music stand as he directed about 20 students. Fumbling with instruments nearly as big as they are, the students inhaled all the air their lungs could take, and on Bremis’s fourth count, bared down on their instruments – producing near-perfect D and E notes.
Bremis, a spry and jocular man, finished his day job Tuesday afternoon – teaching history to Britton Middle School’s eighth graders – an hour prior.
Bremis is also the teacher of an after school instrument lesson for fifth- and sixth-graders, spearheaded by Mike Tatarakis and the Live Oak Band Boosters Club.
Caught between a sparse elementary school music program and declining enrollment in the middle and high school band classes, booster parents and Morgan Hill Unified School District officials came up with a compromise: an after school instrument class offered for fifth and sixth grade students. The district provides the room – Britton’s band room – and a few instruments. The boosters will front up to $50,000 for the first two years of the program, Tatarakis said. Parents are asked to pay $100 for three months of lessons, up to four lessons per week. The class is available to any fifth- or sixth-grader in the district.
“What’s underlying all of this is the declining enrollment,” Tatarakis said, referring to the boosters’ long held notion that a poorly executed elementary music program leaves students uninterested in music. Disinterest leads to declining enrollment which leads to cut programs, which is the boosters’ biggest fear.
“We’re hoping that the district will accept lower enrollment (for the next two years). It’s a difficult nut to crack in the current economic climate, but we need to keep our band directors at the high school and middle school,” Tatarakis said. That way, “the district can place a feather in our cap and say we still have music in our district” once the economic crisis is over, he said.
During the hour-long class, which takes place from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday, fifth- and sixth-grade students can learn wind or percussion instruments.
So far, about 40 students have signed up and attend regularly. The class meets in the band room at Britton. Bremis said he’s ready for numbers to swell.
“There’s no limit,” Bremis said happily. “I wish I could get 200 students.”
For Bremis, who taught music for more than 20 years in Morgan Hill Unified, music is more than just notes on a page and sounds in the air.
“There are all these studies out that prove students who take music are better problem solvers and do so much better in math,” he said.
Still, Morgan Hill’s storied music program – including the marching band, Live Oak Emerald Regime and its decades-long history of traveling and trophy winning – is dwindling, booster parents say. The Regime, Morgan Hill’s pride and joy, boasted almost 150 members just six years ago and is down to fewer than 50 now.
After June layoffs cut the elementary music program from three teachers to just one this year, Morgan Hill Unified School District officials revamped the program from an hour each week of general and instrumental music instruction for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders to simply general music instruction for fifth- and sixth-graders only.
This after-school program is a supplement to the district’s program. The idea is to get students interested in taking a middle school music course and, ideally for the booster club, sign up for a marching band in high school.
District officials say anything parents can do for the children is great.
“We’re very pleased that the parents have creatively filled a much needed void in strengthening the music program in the district,” Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Michael Johnson said.
Johnson said the district has learned that creating a music appreciation program has been effective in reaching more students. Not every student is suited for learning an instrument, he said, but every student can appreciate music.
“Everyone has a vocal chord to sing with and ears to appreciate music and learn about music. But it’s not the case that all of us are interested in picking up an instrument,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the district would be interested in offering an elective elementary instrumental music program if there were money for it, but there simply isn’t. In fact, the district has said that it will look at canceling programs, including possibly arts and music.
“Everything is on the board for consideration,” Johnson said of the expected upcoming school year’s budget cuts. “We may address the music program, we may not.”
Parents say they’re grateful their children can take affordable music lessons from an experienced teacher.
“There’s nothing like that in the schools anymore,” Margaret Diaz said. “I’m really grateful for that. As soon as I found out, I took advantage of it.”
Her son River Diaz, 11, is learning the saxophone. Most days, he walks to Britton from his home, which Diaz said proves his dedication.
“Obviously he wants to be here,” Diaz said with a smile. “Now, we’ll see what he can do on the sax.”
So are Bremis’s students inspired to take band once they reach middle school? Baritone horn player Donald Ukanwa, 8, thinks so.
“I think (Bremis) is kind of funny and it’s fun to be in his program,” he said. “I think it’s kind of fun to play instruments.”
Ukanwa plans to take band in secondary school, and may use the skills he learns from music – fractions, for example – in his future career as an engineer. That’s if he doesn’t become a soccer or football player.
