School bands see explosive growth

SANDPOINT – Greg Schuh has a problem. Granted, it’s the kind of problem most band teachers would welcome, but it does present some difficulties.

Now in his fourth year as elementary band director for the Lake Pend Oreille School District, Schuh has seen his program grow to the point where he has far more interested students than available instruments.

“We have about 94 percent of all eligible students in band,” he said, adding that this year’s enrollment marked a more than 50 percent increase compared with his first year in the district.

According to the director, that gives LPOSD schools a higher rate of elementary band participation than any district in the state, based on information from the Idaho Music Educators Association.

Unfortunately, a large number of those students are sitting in his classes with nothing more than a band book and a strong desire to make music.  So far this year, those students have been practicing the fingerings for their respective instruments in what might best be described as the school band equivalent of air guitar.

“There are 58 kids waiting for instruments right now,” Schuh said.  “We’re in the second month of school and I still have that many students without an instrument.”

District-wide, that represents more than 20 percent of his total enrollment of 264 students.  At some schools, like Farmin-Stidwell Elementary, the percentage is even higher.

“That’s a school where we have way more people without an instrument than with one,” the director explained.

The explosive growth in the district’s instrumental music program, Schuh added, is a credit to his colleagues at the middle school and high school level – Ryan Dignan and Aaron Gordon.

“They’ve done a great job of building their programs into bands that kids want to be in when they get older,” he said.  

There also has been enormous support from the district’s fifth- and sixth-grade teachers, who help generate excitement for taking part in the bands that Schuh leads with the help of assistant director Paul Gunter.

“But probably the biggest reason we have so many students in our beginning bands is that we have been able to offer them low-cost ways of getting an instrument that very few other districts can offer,” Schuh said.

Band instrument rentals or outright purchases remain an option for families that can afford it, but, with the average monthly rental fee averaging between $28-$48 and the price tag on most entry level student instruments running several hundred dollars, such a solution is not available to everyone.

For that reason, Schuh began building a fleet of district-owned instruments that could be rented to students for just $5 per month.  In four years, he has managed to increase the inventory from a handful of horns to nearly 60, using the rental income to clean and repair the instruments each summer, while managing to pick up a couple of additions to the fleet with any money that was left over.

Although demand for those low-cost rentals has always been higher than what was available, the Festival at Sandpoint has helped make up the difference by sponsoring students of lower-income families and providing free rental instruments.  With that organization’s coffers tapped out after inclement weather challenged the 2009 concert season, however, Festival support this school year dropped to about half of what it had been in the past.

“The Festival at Sandpoint has been providing instruments for anywhere from a third to half of our beginning band students at tremendous cost to themselves,” Schuh said.  “Their generosity to the children of LPOSD can’t be overstated.  But the Festival simply can’t keep up with the increased demand placed on their scholarship program – and they shouldn’t have to.

“There are many families that requested a free instrument from the Festival that could afford to rent one from the district for $5-a-month, if only we had more instruments to offer,” he added.

Schuh is convinced that part of the answer to his quandary is waiting to be found in the attics, cupboards and closet shelves of area homes, where unused band instruments may be gathering dust.  He’s hoping that people will be inclined to dig around for these long forgotten items and donate them to the low-cost rental pool.

“I don’t care if they work – I don’t even care if all the parts are there,” the director said.  “If we can’t make it work, we’ll use the parts to get other instruments back into working condition.

“Quite simply, we need at least 30-40 more instruments right now to cover the needs of students who desperately want to be part of the bands, but cannot get an instrument any other way.”

Schuh has scheduled a few elementary band fundraisers for later in the school year to benefit students joining his program in 2010-2011.  To address the immediate need, he has launched an appeal for community support to purchase new instruments to go along with the used ones – some as much as 70 years old but still playing – he currently has available.

“We’ve started an ‘Adopt an Instrument’ program where participants can purchase a brand new instrument for fifth- and sixth-graders to use,” he said.  “Those instruments will contain a small plaque on the case with the name of the generous individuals or families who were responsible for its purchase.”

The director said the following instruments, including shipping, can be purchased for the amounts shown below:

Flutes - $250 each

Clarinets - $250 each

Alto Saxophones - $400 each

Trumpets - $270 each

Trombones - $320 each

To arrange for pick-up of used instrument donations, contact the band director at (208) 946-3565 or e-mail to:  HYPERLINK “mailto:greg.schuh@lposd.org” greg.schuh@lposd.org

Checks for the “Adopt an Instrument” program can be made out to: “LPOSD Bands – Farmin Stidwell School” and dropped off or mailed to Farmin Stidwell Elementary at 1626 Spruce St. in Sandpoint.