Megan Reich on Music Cuts

Beaverton School Board Business Meeting • Monday, June 18, 2012 • Public Participation Comment, Megan Reich

Reminder on the Importance of Maintaining the Positions of our Music Directors                 

Good evening. My name is Megan Reich. I will be a senior next year at Southridge High School as a student in the band and a member of the Portland Youth Philharmonic.

Now, if I wanted to, I could sit here and tell you my story – of how music has motivated me through my struggles, or how I’m concerned for the future experiences of my younger siblings.

But this isn’t about me. This is about all the music students of the Beaverton School District. This is about every single student that is standing in this room, or sitting at home, who are all trying to ignore  the fact that when they – we – step into the school next year, or onto the field on the first day of band camp, it’s not going to be the same.

Because someone might be missing.

A band director to a musician is a coach to athletes. It is not only their knowledge, but their dedication and enthusiasm that inspires students to explore the arts, and in doing so, these students explore themselves.

I have never seen a teacher so passionate in what they do. It’s more than waving a stick around in circles. It’s surviving on coffee at 9pm with marching band, all for simply seeing their pride at Championships. It’s pausing and giving seniors a time to laugh over our memories the last rehearsal before state, it’s about knowing each and every student from more than just a name and instrument.

There’s a special kind of relationship between a band director and their students – a sense of community. I know at Southridge, after so many turbulent band director changes, I finally feel that we are beginning to weave our own story.

And if we must be faced with a new director, they will be welcomed, I can assure that. But, for all students in bands and choirs throughout the Beaverton School District, it is the playing of music that has given us an identity. It is the playing of music that has given us a passion to follow. It is the playing of music that has given us perseverance, friendships, dedication. It is the music programs here in the Beaverton School District that opened this door for us. And in the end, it is our band and choir directors that have supported us through all of this.

 

If any school in this district must lose their music teacher, they will truly lose a member of the family.