The Montclair Board of Education has launched a new initiative in music and the performing arts.
District officials said elementary school students will now have an opportunity to learn how to play a variety of musical instruments and they will eventually have a chance to perform in school bands.
According to Schools Superintendent Frank Alvarez, the district will expand its music instruction because past experience has demonstrated that students who are exposed to music and the performing arts perform better in their overall academic studies and become well-rounded individuals.
School officials said arts education in the public schools has become a major point of interest because Montclair is home to a large community of prominent artists, musicians and performers. Many of them, including a growing number with children in the schools, have donated their time by performing in the schools or serving as volunteer instructors.
In a special presentation to the full seven-member Board of Education at its meeting this past week, Assistant Schools Superintendent Terry Trigg-Scales said the district will devote additional resources to all four disciplines including art, music, dance and theater.
She said the new focus is the product of a collaborative effort that was put together with input from a 24-member advisory board.
The district’s plan began with the hiring of Dana Spagnola, a new music teacher whose main duties will be to provide instruction to as many elementary school students as possible. Trigg-Scales said she would teach students a number of instruments ranging from the violin to the clarinet, and the flute, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, cello and percussion instruments.
Spagnola said that more than 300 fourth- and fifth-grade students have already signed up for the in-school music instruction, including 72 at Rand, 72 at Watchung, 33 at Hillside, 59 at Edgemont, and 82 at Bradford. Current plans call for Spagnola to spend a full weekday at each school conducting instruction.
Funding for the new teaching position was included in this year’s $110 million operating budget. The position survived several rounds of budget cuts after a number of parents spoke before the board during its budget deliberations, urging the board to add additional resources for music instruction.
One group, the Friends and Advocates of Montclair Education (FAME) has argued for the past three years that the Montclair School District has fallen far behind schools in neighboring districts in providing music instruction to its students. It welcomed the district’s new music initiative.
"Our hope for the future is to build on this program by expanding the ensemble opportunities afforded to these new musicians at the middle-school and the high-school levels," said FAME member Susan Abraham.
District officials said the new initiative was being aided by financial support from the Montclair Fund for Educational Excellence (MFEE).
"We are especially excited about helping with the new music initiative," MFEE Vice President Susan Brady told the board. "We are currently investigating ways to do this and we anticipate providing grants for instrument purchases."
The district’s initiative will also benefit from recent fundraising efforts by Montclair Schools Rock!, whose annual fall concert on Oct. 4 set a new benchmark, and the Little Kids Rock organization, which hopes to raise funds for the purchase of specific instruments.
While funding from the MFEE will be available to purchase some instruments, several board members, including Shirley Grill and Ron Riddick, suggested that the community could play an important role by donating used instruments that are still in good working condition.
Trigg-Scales said the district is conducting an inventory of its available instruments and would prepare a list of what instruments and how many of them will be needed.
