Published Tuesday, July 23, 2002
Herald Staff Writer
Reynolds High School band members, Raiders band boosters and parents asked the school board Monday to consider keeping all three music teachers, particularly marching band director Michael Mazzocco.
The board announced in May it would cut about a dozen teaching positions as part of its plan to get the district out from under a $2 million deficit.
Among those is a possible reduction of the music staff from three to two teachers, said Superintendent Dr. Anthony Trosan. An extracurricular assistant band director post already was cut, he said.
However, Trosan said, the board is also looking at ways to keep the band program intact and said he wants to set up a meeting with the band boosters.
"Mr. Mazzocco is like a second father to us," senior band member Michelle Truax said as she struggled to hold back tears. Flanked by current and past band members, she added, "Like our fathers taught us to ride a bike, he taught us to play instruments, and that means a lot to us, especially me."
Michelle's mother, boosters secretary Dyana Thompson, emphasized the importance of music education and pointed out that music is everywhere.
"In the car, what's the first thing you do? You turn on the radio," she said.
Ms. Thompson said her daughter has considered studying music education in college and asked the board how she could do that if the band program is eliminated. Her fifth-grade daughter, Elizabeth, plays the bells and decided to join the band "because she saw her sister do it," Ms. Thompson added.
Band parent Max Ciscell, who is a juvenile probation officer, said Mazzocco "runs a tight ship" and influences kids in a positive way by teaching them discipline. "Kids are looking for discipline, for guidance, for structure," he said.
"Teaching kids to have a burning desire to do anything is a challenge ... when you have someone who is a leader, you should grasp him and hold onto him and not eliminate his position," Ciscell said.
In a five-page letter to the board dated July 15, the Reynolds Raiders Band Boosters listed Mazzocco's accomplishments, the benefits of the music program to students and how the program would suffer with only two teachers.
"The loss of his position would truly be just that -- a loss to the district," Tracy Schaaf, boosters vice president, read from the letter.
Trosan said board members would continue to discuss the furloughs during an executive session after Monday's work session and likely will approve the layoffs when they meet at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the large group instruction room at the high school.