Playing New Tune : School Board Grants Middle School Band Program Funding

MOORPARK —  In band teacher Lee Schwartz’s perfect world, young tuba players such as 13-year-old Kyle Colon would hit their F sharps every time, and there would be enough money in the school budget to buy an instrument for every kid who wanted to play.

But this isn’t a perfect world--Kyle is still learning and the money is just not there.

The tuba that Kyle plays at Chaparral Middle School is dented and patched with black electrical tape, but at least it plays.

“It plays pretty good,” Kyle said. “I make sure I don’t touch the patch.”

The band program has been called the “unwanted stepchild” of the Moorpark Unified School District. Schwartz hopes that will soon change.

With an impassioned plea in front of the school board this past week, Schwartz was able to persuade the board to grant the two schools about half the money he estimates they need, or about $10,000 for each school.

There are about 200 students enrolled in band classes at Moorpark’s two middle schools, Mesa Verde and Chaparral.

Some of them are fortunate enough to own their own instruments. Others have parents willing to fork over $200 to $350 to rent an instrument for a year. And some just have to use whatever the school can provide for them.

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The school instruments are shared usually by two students, but for the scarce instruments--such as the French horn--sometimes that number will jump to four. Some of the aspiring musicians tell harrowing tales of having to practice with a horn still moist from use by another student.

For all five years that Schwartz has been a band teacher, he said, this is the first time he has seen school funding provided for instruments, sheet music, or even instrument repairs.

The school board’s grant this week is not a total victory, but Schwartz said he is happy.

“It definitely is going to help,” he said. “But ultimately the school district has to come up with some sort of plan . . . these needs don’t just go away with time.”

Schwartz said he has lost students who wanted to take lessons when he didn’t have instruments for them to use. Because he does not have enough instruments, none of his classes are for beginners. So, students who decide in the sixth or seventh grade that they want to learn to play an instrument are on their own.

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“We can’t even consider starting a beginners program,” he said. “We just don’t have the instruments.”

Concerned parents have tried to pick up the slack. At Mesa Verde, the parents set up a booster club and have raised about $10,000 to pay for new trombones, trumpets and various other costly instruments. They even bought Schwartz a repair kit, hoping that would allow him to keep some of the older instruments in use.

These donations have meant that Schwartz has not had to load his car every day with instruments and shuttle them between the two schools where he teaches. During the morning he has classes at Mesa Verde; he gives lessons at Chaparral in the afternoons.

Schwartz said he intends to use the money from the school board grant to buy quality used instruments.

New tubas or baritone saxophones cost about $2,000 each; he is hoping that by buying used instruments he will be able to stretch the money further.

Meanwhile, the students in both schools are busy learning a handful of pieces that they will perform in March at several competitions.

Most of the pieces are a melange of other classical music, but on Friday a class of mostly seventh-graders worked on a few measures from a more modern piece called “Of Pride and Celebration.”

Tiffany Chou, 13, accented the music with the rolling beat of her timpani drums. And Will Ouellette, 13, interpreted the tune with his baritone saxophone, while the rest of the woodwind section played along with him.

The guys in the brass section were working too, piping in behind the group of girls playing clarinets.

And when called upon, Kyle hit the F sharp on his tuba--well, most of the time.