January 2017 - Umeamembership - mailman.xmission.com

Capitol Hill Day
by Robert D. Coleman 25 Jan '17

25 Jan '17

Dear Music Educators, Our 2017 Utah Music Education on the Hill Day is quickly approaching. With the current political climate, it is crucial that we advocate more emphatically for Music Education in Utah. The event this year is on Wednesday, February 15th at 4:30pm in the State Capitol Rotunda. With the time change, we hope that more of our Music Educator's will be present. As we have learned from recent policy changes in the State School Board with regards to additional required courses, the time to advocate is NOT just when their is a crisis, but before their is a crisis. We MUST be more diligent in fitting this important piece of the education puzzle into our very busy schedules. We are asking that you do 2 things: 1- Forward the attached invitation to your State Senator and Legislator. While, I have sent a personal invitation to each of them, they are MUCH more likely to attend if they are asked directly by one or more of their constituents. Here is a link to their email address: http://le.utah.gov/GIS/findDistrict.jsp District Map - Utah State Legislature le.utah.gov The offical web site for the Utah State Legislature. 2- Please forward this invitation to all of your parents and encourage them to forward the invitation to their State Senator's and Legislators. Also, ask your students and parents to share the invitation on social media. The invitation could be shared weekly over the next 4 weeks to keep it fresh in people's mind. You may even want to share it with your faculty, especially your school and even district administration. Sincerely, Christine Wolf Director of Bands Central Davis Junior High School UMEA Advocacy Chair www.umea.us MUSIC: Broaden Minds. Think Beyond the Bubbles.

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Music on the Hill Day
by Robert D. Coleman 24 Jan '17

24 Jan '17

Dear Music Educators, Our 2017 Utah Music Education on the Hill Day is quickly approaching. With the current political climate, it is crucial that we advocate more emphatically for Music Education in Utah. The event this year is on Wednesday, February 15th at 4:30pm in the State Capitol Rotunda. With the time change, we hope that more of our Music Educator's will be present. As we have learned from recent policy changes in the State School Board with regards to additional required courses, the time to advocate is NOT just when their is a crisis, but before their is a crisis. We MUST be more diligent in fitting this important piece of the education puzzle into our very busy schedules. We are asking that you do 2 things: 1- Forward the attached invitation to your State Senator and Legislator. While, I have sent a personal invitation to each of them, they are MUCH more likely to attend if they are asked directly by one or more of their constituents. Here is a link to their email address: http://le.utah.gov/GIS/findDistrict.jsp District Map - Utah State Legislature le.utah.gov The offical web site for the Utah State Legislature. 2- Please forward this invitation to all of your parents and encourage them to forward the invitation to their State Senator's and Legislators. Also, ask your students and parents to share the invitation on social media. The invitation could be shared weekly over the next 4 weeks to keep it fresh in people's mind. You may even want to share it with your faculty, especially your school and even district administration. Sincerely, Christine Wolf Director of Bands Central Davis Junior High School UMEA Advocacy Chair www.umea.us MUSIC: Broaden Minds. Think Beyond the Bubbles. http://www.donorschoose.org/christine.wolf

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Conference Pre-Registration Deadline
by Robert D. Coleman 24 Jan '17

24 Jan '17

The pre-registration deadline for UMEA Conference in St. George is Friday, January 27. You can pre-register online at: umea.us/conference.php Robert D. ColemanUtah Music Educators Assn.Communications Director 5084 S 150 EOgden, UT 84405 801 479-5736; 801 814-4854 (mobile)rcoleman50(a)comcast.net

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Immediate action requested
by Robert D. Coleman 18 Jan '17

18 Jan '17

Below is a message from UHSAA regarding the new ruling that allows for student transfer from high school to high school w/o loss of eligibility to play sports. Obviously this new rule will also effect music and the arts...........and will have many unintended consequences, similarly to the ruling regarding the new classes for 6th and 8th graders.There is a board meeting tomorrow evening, and UHSAA has asked that we get the word out to the music education community. ________________________________________From: Josh Taylor [taylor(a)uhsaa.org]Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2017 3:52 PMSubject: UHSAAAssociation Reps,Thank you for attending today’s meeting at the UHSAA office. Below you will find contact information for the Utah State Board of Education, the Utah Senate, and the Utah House of Representatives. Please begin the process of having your communities contact these bodies immediately.Please be respectful and positive in your comments. Do not have your constituents submit copy/pasted form letters.Everyone should submit their own thoughts on how the Utah State Board of Education rule R277-409, particularly the language on transfers, would impact them and their school to rule.comments(a)schools.utah.gov<mailto:rule.comments@schools.utah.gov> by January 30th.Comments also need to be submitted to the Utah Senate and Utah House of Representatives by phone and/or email (using the contact info from the links below) regarding concern about any bill taking local control away from governing high school activities. Local control is defined as the UHSAA Board of Trustees made up of local school board members, superintendents and principals, which as a body, currently governs high school activities.UHSAA Board of Trustees and Executive Committee meeting agendas and minutes can be found at uhsaa.org/bot<http://www.uhsaa.org/bot> and uhsaa.org/ec<http://www.uhsaa.org/ec> respectively.Attached is the USBE hearing process for Thursday, and the language from R277-409.If you have questions regarding contacting state legislatures, please email UHSAA consultant Dave Spatafore (dave(a)spatafore.info<mailto:dave@spatafore.info>).Thank you so much for your time and efforts.Utah State Board of Education:1. R277-409 public hearing is Thursday, Jan. 19 at 5:30pm in the USBE Board room. All coaches are encouraged to attend.2. Public comment open until January 31st at rule.comments(a)schools.utah.gov<mailto:rule.comments@schools.utah.gov>Utah Senate with emails, phone numbers and committeeshttp://senate.utah.gov/senators/full-roster.htmlUtah House of Representatives roster with email and phone numbershttp://le.utah.gov/house2/representatives.jspOverall state Legislative website for all legislative informationhttp://le.utah.gov/

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Digital Studies course
by Robert D. Coleman 11 Jan '17

11 Jan '17

Dear UMEA MEMBER, As of this last week Todd Campbell brought to our attention the urgency of notifying our specific representative State School Board Members concerning a proposed new requirement for our 8th grade students. This will have a tremendous NEGATIVE effect on students participating in our programs and ultimately effect programs right up through our high schools. Please read Todd’s note (below) to UMEA and write your representative board member ASAP. There is a deadline here of the January 12. My best as we go forward to promote music in our schools. To find your board member, simply click on the added link… To assist, I have included the note I have written to my School Board Representative here in District 1 (below). Feel free to copy n’ paste…… use it how you would like. Thanks, Greg Wheeler Gregory J. Wheeler Ph. D. Music Education, Jazz, Bands, Woodwinds Utah State University President – Utah Music Educators Association gregj.wheeler(a)usu.edu 435-512-5799 UTAH MUSIC EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION Dear UMEA Board, I am not sure you are aware that the State School Board has passed a new 8th grade course requirement. "Digital Studies". I am finding that very few people are aware of this. I am extremely concerned! The powers at be feel like our students need to be more prepared with technology. This added course in my opinion will kill music as we know it. I have already been in contact with my legislator Ray Ward (who's children are in Band and who I went to high school with where he played trombone) and my State School Board member representative Laura Belnap. When we talked she expressed that she feels like this class is a bad idea and here is how I should proceed...( these were her recommendations). She also expressed that most of the decisions are made in committee not at the actual board meetings. So the timing of the letters we need to send are very important. She also suggested that we should send letters to all board members. The board meets in committee meeting on Jan 12th. We should write letters to all board members ASAP We should have many people from all over the state write letters We should not just write about what it will do to Music but address all concerns This should be a decision made by local school boards not the State Board I have began my letter and will include a very rough draft that I have not sent. I would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions with my letter but feel strongly that we have many many people write letters. I have included all the State School Board members contact information. I have also included minutes from several of the board meetings held in the past year or so. We must act before Jan 12th. I suggest that we have a letter deadline of Jan 8th. https://schoolboard.utah.gov/board-member-bios January 17, 2017 Dear Mrs. Warner, I have been a music educator in the Cache Schools for 30 years and am a professor in music education in the music department at Utah State University for the last 8 years. I am presently President of the Utah Music Educators Association (UMEA). We have most recently learned of the potential of a new added requirement for our 8th grade students. It is referred to as Digital Studies. It seems to be something that was taught in the high school but has now been recommended to be passed down to the 8th level students in our state. I don’t believe those in charge of this are having an open mind to what this does to the other elective areas for our students, especially the arts and music programs. The 8th level is not one that allows for a lot of electives for our students. Of course, music is an elective course for our students. With another required course, this will place nails in the coffin for our music programs for our younger students. At this point it is tough enough for our students to include music in their school curriculum with all the required subjects. On top of that, this has incredible negative effect on the high school programs as student have to defer their musical training as they just get started – when this happens they don’t come back. If not carefully thought through, this could become one of the largest deterrents to music education to ever come from our state board. As President of UMEA, I am hearing the cry of distress and worry from music educators form throughout the state. I would hope you sincerely re-examine the need of doing this and realize the major loss it will cause in students participating in the arts in our schools. Through the latest passing of the Every Child Succeeds Act there is a national/state re-emphasis as music has been redefined as being one of the key parts of our school curriculum and student learning. We plead for you to reconsider the decision of adding this requirement to our 8th grade students. I would be glad to chat with and answer any questions concerning the importance of our young student’s involvement in our school music programs. Sincere Thanks, Greg Wheeler

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