Juniors and members of the Blue Notes Jazz Band, Ross Commerford and Mary Grekstas walk in front of the crowd like they do for every concert. Tonight, though, it is different. This isn’t a concert — it’s a school board meeting. They don’t have their instruments — they have speeches. But they’re not playing for Jazz fans — they’re fighting for East’s band program, which is under the threat of budget cuts next year.
The Shawnee Mission School board is considering a number of proposals which would cut funding to East’s Jazz bands. At the school board meeting on March 11, students and parents argued against the proposed cuts which have been introduced due to a projected decrease in enrollment in the Jazz band for the 2013-14 school year. However band members and their parents are arguing that the projected numbers do not reflect the actual enrollment for next year as it does not include the statistically high band enrollment in middle schools in the district. McKinney and faculty have refused to comment.
The cuts will directly affect the the Band director’s position by taking it from full-time down to part-time. The band members have immediately recognized the importance of having a full time band director. This would leave the Jazz band with two options. The first would be to completely cut the lower ensemble, the Blue Notes.
“It’s like a football team, if their JV team got cut,” Junior and member of the Blue Knights Noah Eidemiller said. “Their [varsity] team would suffer immensely.”
The second option would be to combine the two ensembles into one hour, taught by the same teacher.
“You can’t cover all of your material in 20 minutes,” Eidemiller said. “ You can maybe cover one song or two. For most concerts we do four or five songs. We could do four or five songs but they wouldn’t be to the level that we’re used to and they wouldn’t be very good.”
“We do so much throughout the season, and a lot of this isn’t scheduled at the beginning of the year,” Grekstas said in her speech to the school board. “Sometimes, like our basketball team going to state, we have two days to get that ready. The director is necessary throughout the days to see that we have a good successful band there to represent our school and our district wherever we go.”
Kim Harrison, the current band director at East, was not able to comment on the issue due to his employment through the district.
In their attempts to save the band, members have started a petition hoping to gather 1,000 signatures.
“The main goal of the petition was just to show [the school board] that other people are interested in this,” Commerford said. “We reached our goal of a thousand signatures, and we’ve actually surpassed that.”
Members have also started a Facebook group called “Save the Shawnee Mission East Jazz Band” with current and former Jazz band members with the same goal in mind: to preserve the band program for present and future members.
“What Harrison has taught me with Jazz has helped me so much,” Noah Eidemiller said. “I just want to see the younger generations get to experience the same things that I did and everyone else here did.”
Both the Blue Knights and the Blue Notes have been recognized for their superior musical skill. The Blue Notes recently won their division at the Drury Jazz Festival in Springfield, Mo. The Blue Knights have been able to achieve higher success, being invited to the Duke Ellington Festival in New York. The Duke Ellington Festival hosts a very small handful of schools from both America and Canada. The Blue Knights are the only school in Kansas to ever be invited to it. Many band members believe that with the cuts, this success would stop.
“Taking it down to only one class would be very detrimental,” sophomore and member of the Blue Notes Michael Dannov said. “You’d see fading quality of all of the bands, especially of the Jazz band. After a few years, it wouldn’t be nearly as good as it used to be because people wouldn’t be able to get experience before they got launched into [the Blue Knights].”
Cuts to the band director, would affect more than just the Jazz band. These cuts will also be felt by East’s symphonic or classical band.
“Even though it’s two different styles of music, Jazz and classical, playing either one helps you with both,” Dannov said. “Playing classical helps you with Jazz, and Jazz helps you with classical. Two of our best players in [symphonic band] are also in Jazz Band. Not having that would make those players worse in future years, which would bring down the rest of the band.”
Plus, Harrison works with more than just the Jazz and symphonic bands.
The cuts in the band would not only affect the band’s quality, but also the people in the band. It’s much more than just music, Commerford believes, the music is a way to connect them to the school and to the history of Kansas City.
“[Jazz], in many cases, has been called a language,” Commerford said. “It’s a big part of our culture today. Kansas City and the surrounding area is a Mecca for Jazz and music. We’re one of the musical capitals in the country and the world honestly. The music program at East and the fine arts program at East is something the district prides in. It’s a very big part of the school and the district, and we would just hate to see that go away.”
A huge community is backing the Jazz band, including multiple alumni. A few of them have become professional musicians, but for all of them the Jazz band was a huge part of their high school experience.
“After that first year playing with the Blue Notes Jazz Band, I knew that I fell in love with it, that it was going to be a part of my life, for the rest of my life,” said former band member and current junior at K-State Cameron Robles at the district meeting. “So I just wanted to say thank you and please don’t destroy the Jazz band.”
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