Baldwin County School District was named as a NAAM Foundation “Best Communities for Music Education” for the seventh year in a row.
“The recognition sets us apart from a lot of other school districts. We’re one of nine from the state that have been recognized,” said Jay Wucher, Baldwin County Board of Education fine arts consultant. “It lifts us up in regards to the type of programming that we can offer our students and the support that we get from the community.”
The program has recognized 738 school districts and 80 schools across 44 states for their outstanding efforts to support music education. To win this recognition, the winners are chosen through an application process and a long list of requirements that can be found on the Best Communities for Music Education website.
Receiving this award acknowledges that the Baldwin County School District puts grand effort into their music education and ensures that every student is offered a well-rounded education in music with opportunities to get involved.
According to the NAAM Foundation website, this recognition is announced on a national and community level. With this recognition, there will be an increased visibility of music education in the district and community, program validation of the district’s support for music education, and through the program, the district receives a tool that allows them to evaluate their music program for the future.
“The district is constantly supportive of the music program, as well as the fine arts program. Cooperation between the superintendent and the board has never been any better. They are all so supportive of our programs,” said Wucher.
Wucher explained that the board and the superintendent continuously discuss with teachers and each other on how to improve the music program. The goal is to grow the numbers of participation but also grow the quality of music programs at each school. First, they are working to attract and retain the best teachers. Then, these teachers are offered resources including instruments, professional development and appreciation.
“Appreciation to these teachers goes a long way to how the music programs grow. All of these factors lead to a program becoming successful,” said Wucher. “Those are some of the things that I actually put on that application when we applied for the recognition. If you’re staying where you are, you’re going backwards. But if you’re constantly moving forward, then you’re upgrading the quality. That’s why we strive to continue to improve.”
Wucher then expressed that there are measures working towards upgrading the size of the inventory, removing barriers from families that can’t afford instruments and still providing opportunities to those families to be a part of music education.
“ I’ve worked in other counties that have received this recognition but I never worked in a district where everybody was so focused on trying to do the right thing for the right reasons,” said Wucher.
The Baldwin High School band director, James McMillan, was very proud of the district for receiving this award. McMillan is an alumni of Baldwin High School and has watched the music program at the school grow from the time he was a student through his time as a teacher.
“I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum, as both a student and now the director of band. Just coming back to your alma mater, and seeing it still be successful is an unbelievable feeling,” said McMillan. “With the band program and the arts program, Baldwin County continues to just push the limits to get better and better.”
McMillan believes the program has improved because of the support system towards fine arts between schools, the superintendent and the Baldwin County Board of Education.
“While other areas are usually cutting fine arts positions, we continue to expand on our fine arts personnel,” said McMillan. “And we continue to offer music education at a very young age.”
The band program at Baldwin High School delivers a music education for all grades and students with different levels of knowledge related to music. The program uses differentiated learning to put experienced players with new players by combining grades together in the band.
“We offer tiered instruction differentiation because in one given day, you could have a ninth grader in the room with no experience and an eleventh grade songwriter in the room at the same time. They can gain experience from each other and it makes the class challenging for both students,” said McMillan.
James Bell, the chorus teacher at Oak Hill Middle School, expressed that he is also pleased with the recognition and most proud of how the music education structure in the district has put pride into his students. Bell teaches sixth through eighth grade at Oak Hill Middle School and previously has had over 27 years of experience teaching music related classes at Blandy Hills Elementary School and Midway Hills Primary School.
“Seeing the confidence grow in the students in my chorus class this year was something I was most proud of,” said Bell. “ It can be challenging performing in front of people, especially your peers but they have shown a lot of courage. Our music program always incorporates a high value of encouragement.”
Bell structures his teaching on relationships between himself, the students and music. He believes the foundation to creating a positive relationship with music is by showing the students how much he cares and why they should care.
“I really subscribe to the old adage, “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” I believe once that relational piece is in place that so many things can be accomplished,” said Bell.
Elizabeth Yorker, a music teacher at Lakeview Academy, also teaches with a primary focus on relationships between herself, the students,and music. Yorker teaches third through fifth grade students and strives to offer a personalized and well-rounded music education for them.
“I try to look at music from the student’s perspective when I teach,” said Yorker. “I use my standards and follow the curriculum but I also try to use examples based on student interest and teach lessons through songs that they love.”
Yorker gave an example of this learning from when she was teaching rhythm to her students. Because of their interest in the Disney song, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” Yorker incorporated the song into her lesson and allowed her students to practice following the beats and rhythm through this song.
“I try to move away from the typical teaching mindset for music and make it meaningful for my students. When I show interest in songs or genres that they are interested in, they are more engaged and it creates a positive relationship with music,” said Yorker.
Baldwin County begins music education at a very young age to help establish this positive relationship and build a student’s education of music overtime. Music instruction begins as early as four years old through a violin class in the Early Learning Center.
“It definitely helps to start them young,” said Yorker. “That relationship may begin as just a lesson but overtime it could blossom into a student who just loves music for fun, one who wants to do musicals and another who may want to play an instrument. I’m thankful that our district begins music education at such a young age.”
Baldwin County continues to strive to better their music programs in the district. Even as school comes to a close, there are plans to offer a Fine Arts camp to the community. The camp will have classes that are geared towards elementary and middle schoolers for music, dance, theatre and visual arts.