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Music Education Survey
by Robert D Coleman 05 May '17

05 May '17

Dear members, The UMEA Board is extending an invitation for you to participate in a survey, the results of which are believed to hold significance for the profession and will be shared with UMEA for that purpose. The survey, created by PhD Candidate Seth Pendergast, University of Utah, is in response to trends in music education for adding new and emerging music curriculums to current music programs. Some questions that might arise for music teacher educators, arts administrators and arts organizations might be: Do our teachers have an interest in providing alternative music courses at their school? Do they feel alternative music classes are even needed? Are they prepared to teach such courses (content knowledge, learning outcomes, designing instructional activities). This survey makes an attempt to answer those questions. It identifies seven music courses for the secondary level (some standard and some emerging). The survey attempts to measure interest and preparation in a comprehensive way. A link to the survey is found below: https://redcap01.brisc.utah.edu/ccts/redcap/surveys/?s=LFYMDTNFDA <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__redcap01.brisc.utah.ed…> Questions may be addressed to Seth Pendergast www.sethpendergast.com <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.sethpendergast.com&…>

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Hill Day reminder
by Robert D. Coleman 14 Feb '17

14 Feb '17

Dear Music Education Colleagues, The day is almost here! Our Annual Utah Music Education on the Hill event is this Wednesday, February 15th at 4:30 in the State Capitol Rotunda. There will be music performances from the Bingham HS Marching Band, Mountain View Middle School Choir, Lone Peak HS Jazz Band and a Utah State University String Quartet. Speakers will include Senator James Dabakis, Tami Pyfer- Governor Herbert's Education Advisor, Dean Tymas Jones of the University of Utah, Jeff Poulin of the Americans for the Arts and Dean Craig Jessop of Utah State University. Please share the attached flyer with your students, parents, administration, school board, legislators and social media. Please help share with everyone that you know, that music education is important to students, to our communities. I look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday afternoon! Christine Wolf Director of Bands Central Davis Junior High School UMEA Advocacy Chair www.umea.us

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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 23 Jan '17

23 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 23 Jan '17

23 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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UMEA News Letter
by Robert D. Coleman 01 Dec '16

01 Dec '16

UMEA NEWS Jr. High/Middle School Festivals UMEA now offers three state festivals for the junior high and middle school level. These include the State Jr. High/Middle School Concert Band Festival, State Jr. High/Middle School Orchestra Festival and the new State Jr. High/Middle School Jazz Band Festival. The audition deadline for each of the State Junior High Festivals is January 13, 2017An additional audition adjudicator has been added for each festival in 2017. This will facilitate giving specific comments for each recording instead of just scoring and ranking the ensembles.All application and audition information is posted on the UMEA website. There are several changes to the Concert Band Festival specifically this year. See the information letter for each festival for more detail.All applications and audition recordings for each of the three festivals must be postmarked by January 13, 2017. UMEA also sponsors the State Jr. High Honor Choir. Registration for this event was completed on October 14, 2016. For more information about UMEA festivals for junior high/middle school students, go to: umea.us/festivals.php and click on the festival you are interested in. UMEA Elections UMEA elections will be held online, starting mid-January and ending on Febuary 4 at noon. Those who have no email address on file with UMEA will receive paper ballots. New members or lapsed members who register at the UMEA Mid-Winter Conference in St. George will receive ballots at that time. We are still waiting for information from a few candidates, and the election page on the UMEA website will be updated periodically. You can view candidates' photos, biographies and statements at:umea.us/board.php UMEA Mid-Winter Conference The UMEA Mid-Winter Conference will be held February 3 & 4 at the Dixie Conference Center in St. George, Utah. Renowned music educator and humorist, Dr. Tim Lautzenheizer, will be on hand and NAfME Western Division President, Russ Sperling will be the keynote speaker. A conference edition of the Utah Music Educators Journal should arrive late December/early January, containing information about sessions, presenters and performances. Information about St. George hotels and special rates for conference attendees is also included in the journal. The online conference registration site should soon be updated and ready for pre-registration. Conference grids, showing the schedule of events, will also be available online later this month. Conference information may be accessed 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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State School Board Candidates
by Robert D. Coleman 25 Oct '16

25 Oct '16

Dear UMEA members, In the general election on November 8, 2016 the following Utah state school board districts are holding elections for board positions: Districts 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 15. To find out what State School Board District you reside in, please go to the page: https://elections.utah.gov/map/district-maps. This is a critical time to keep music education issues in the minds of our elected policy makers. If you are in one of the districts up for election, we encourage you to contact the state school board candidates in your area and make a quick email connection with them. Let them know you are a constituent and a music educator. Below are some recommended talking points specific to music education, but please feel free to engage them an any topic you feel is critical. UMEA leadership and advocacy team feels that the candidates who ultimately obtain the school board seats will remember these discussions regarding music education and will be more receptive to dialogue with UMEA in the future. Talking points with State School Board candidates: In the recently passed ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act), music is listed as a stand-alone subject in the definition of a “well rounded education.” Since there is more state control in ESSA than is NCLB (No Child Left Behind), how will you as state school board member be able to insure that music holds a place in kindergarten through 12th grade education in the state recommendations to districts? What is your position on the recent action to allow persons without teaching credentials through certified teacher training programs to teach in Utah schools? Talk with them about how music enriched your school experience and ask if they or their family members had similar experiences in school music programs.

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Mentorship
by Robert D. Coleman 30 Aug '16

30 Aug '16

Chris Dear UMEA Members, I hope everyone has found the beginning of the school year to be stress free. For those of you not in the classroom at least on a daily basis, I am sure you remember what it is like. As Mentor Chair of Utah, I would like to put out a request that all of the teachers, who are on the front lines, assist in identifying the young teachers who may be in their first few years of hopefully a long successful career in music education. We have many seasoned music educators ready to mentor any teacher so desiring help and guidance. Thank you so much if you already have someone under your wing so to speak. However, if any of you know of someone in need of a mentor, would you please forward that name along with their contact information and location to me at your earliest convenience. I will then set them up with a qualified mentor. Thanks for everything you do and have a wonderful year. Best regards, Chris Earl, Mentor Chairperson Utah Music Educators Association

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