Band Members Petition to Save the Lower Jazz Band

1087 signatures. As of March 11, that’s how many people have signed the petition to save the East’s lower jazz band, the Blue Notes. The online petition was created on Wednesday, March 6 and has spread rapidly across Facebook and Twitter urging students to support the jazz band program.

“We did a petition mostly just to try to raise awareness and just to show how many people think it’s ridiculous to cut a music program that drastically,” Blue Knights member junior Mary Grekstas said.

Due to budget cuts, it is proposed that the position of band director would be cut from a full-time position to a part-time position. Because of this, the Blue Notes jazz band would combine with the top Blue Knights to form one band. It is also proposed that the International Baccalaureate (IB) Music Theory class and the Music Theory Honors class will be combined. All the students would be able to take this class, but the curriculum would have to incorporated different aspects of both.

The Blue Notes jazz band feeds into the Blue Knights jazz band and is where many of the members learn the fundamental techniques. Parents and students are worried that cutting the lower band would reduce the amount of success the Blue Knight typically produces. Next year’s jazz band will be mostly comprised of seniors which has caused worry for the program and how it will succeed after they have graduated. Cutting the lower band will also limit the opportunity for kids to get involved and will result in a less experienced band.

“It’s like taking off the JV soccer team and expecting the varsity team to be good,” Grekstas said.

In addition to the petition, parents of the East Band Board wrote a letter to the East administration on Wednesday, March 6 outlining many accomplishments of the two jazz bands. One of the things they cited was the fact that in the past couple of weeks, four members of the Blue Knights were a part of the Kansas Music Educators Association (KSMEA) All-State Jazz Band. This was the highest number of students to come from one school.

“Just a lot of different groups are really impacted by the second band because that’s where they learn fundamentals and stuff like that in jazz which is very prevalent in lots of forms of music,” Blue Knights member junior Ross Commerford said.

The parents and students are spreading the word of the Shawnee Mission School District (SMSD) School Board Meeting on today. They are inviting others to voice their opinion about the proposed cutting of the second band and demonstrate the importance of it.

“It’s a huge part to our program and it’s going to hurt so many kids,” Grekstas said. “It’s going to hurt the future of our program and the success of it.”

Check back at smeharbinger.net for more details to come.