Greetings from the Southwest Kansas District!
The last two years has brought many changes to the SW District as we have implemented a new Middle School Honor Orchestra group, the use of Festival Scores for audition purposes, and changes to positons that we elect to the administrative positions of our District.
Last year, Whitney Maxwell of Dodge City brought to the attention of the board that a portion of our students needs were not being met. We have seen an explosion of strings in the district and she thought that implementing a MS Honor group was much needed. The board was unanimous in their agreement and thus the group was born. It was a wonderful day to see a new group of students getting another opportunity to grow. It was an extremely profound moment as I sat and listened to the group thinking of how this opportunity may stoke the flame for a student to pursue music even deeper. A huge thanks to our string teachers here in the district as they are on the front lines in a renaissance of string music in the State of Kansas.
Many districts in the State have been using Troy Johnson’s Festival Scores. Our District tested the software last year for a couple of groups and has now started using Festival Scores for all of our audition processes except for our Elementary and our HS Honor Choirs. The directors are absolutely, unequivocally happy with this software. If your honor groups are not using this process to audition your students then I highly urge you to look into the software. It is super affordable and extremely streamlined and well thought out. The ability for our directors to judge auditions blindly and in their own comfort is invaluable!
The biggest changes this year made in our District is how our Chairmen are being elected. Our entire board used to be elected every two years thus creating an issue where new people were coming into a position without any knowledge of long-term planning that is happening in our district. We have decided to have Chair-Elects who will serve as an assistant for one year and then take the position of Chairmen after their year. This is to ensure that our Chairs understand their duties and what is needed to make a successful event in our district.
The second change made is in regard to when our positions are being elected. We have decided to model what the State KMEA board does and we now have alternating people coming onto the board. Instead of a reboot happening every two years, we will now have half the board turning over every year. This will ensure that knowledgeable people will always be on the board and that any conversations about the progress of our District is not lost in transition. This is a big change and requires a few of our Chairmen to take on a third year. I appreciate what they do for our students and the sacrifice that they and their families make to further the value of music education!
This year, we had the honor of recognizing three of our teachers and an honor one of our administrators. Katie Corwin of Ross Elementary in Dodge City, Brandon Wade of Pratt Liberty Middle School, and Jason Richins of Dodge City High School were awarded our Outstanding Educators of the Year Awards. Jason will be the SW District KMEA’s State Teacher of the Year representative.
Stephanie Brandyberry, Principal at Macksville, was awarded our Outstanding Administrator Award.
Great things are happening in Southwest Kansas and it has been an absolute joy working with the fine educators located here.
