Concert Canceled : Poor Grades Steal Show From Band

It would have been Taft High School’s first student band concert since the Woodland Hills campus lost its music teacher to declining enrollment six years ago.

But when the band’s 61 members arrived at school wearing their new red uniforms for the first time, they were told the concert had been canceled because of poor grades on some of their latest report cards.

Instead of performing their spring concert for parents, teachers and classmates Thursday, the upset band members wound up holding a demonstration in the school parking lot protesting the event’s cancellation.

‘Lots of People Cried’

“It was really heartbreaking,” said band president Misty Wood, 15.

Principal Charles Caballero said Friday that 23 of the students-- more than a third of Taft’s band members--failed to earn a C average or had flunked at least one class during the grading period ending April 19. Under a Board of Education policy adopted two years ago, students must receive at least a C average and have no failing grades to be eligible to participate in any extracurricular activities.

“Lots of people cried,” Wood said. “We’d been practicing for three months and just wanted to play our music and make people happy.”

‘Timing Was So Bad’

A parent, Bonnie Gref, said her daughter Cheryl, 15, one of the band’s flutists, was so disappointed, she “got sick and wanted to go home.”

“The timing was so bad,” said Georgia Baratta, an 11th-grade clarinetist who--along with Wood and Cheryl Gref--was not among those declared ineligible to be in the band. “They knew about it two weeks ago. Why didn’t they tell us then?”

Band director James McConnell filed a report April 26 noting that 23 of the band members were in violation of the board’s policy. But Caballero said he did not learn of the situation until late Wednesday.

“Somebody should have brought it to my attention,” he said.

‘Day And Night’ Practice

McConnell, who came to Taft in September from Kansas City, Mo., said he was concentrating on the music for the concert and had left policy questions up to administrators. Unfortunately, he said, the ineligible students were key musicians, making it impossible to go ahead with the concert.

Caballero praised McConnell’s efforts in putting a band together in just a few months and said he felt sorry for the students who had been practicing “day and night” in preparation for the concert scheduled Thursday morning.

Caballero said he consulted his supervisors but that they would not bend the rules and allow the event to take place.

‘Keep Trying’

The ineligible students can attend band class but cannot even participate in after-school band practice the rest of the semester, Caballero said.

He said he explained why the concert had been canceled to students during their fourth-period band class Thursday. He said he asked them to turn a negative experience into a positive one by bringing their grades up by June, the end of the next grading period, so they would be eligible to participate in the band in September. Tutors are available to students at no cost, Caballero said.

“We must fall back, regroup and keep trying,” he said.

Shows Board Is Serious

Besides the concert band, the school will have a marching band for the first time in six years in the fall, Caballero said.

Bonnie Gref said the concert’s cancellation had shown students that the school board “is really serious about the rules” on maintaining their grades. Her daughter, although not failing any subject, has already arranged for a tutor in algebra, her poorest subject, Gref said.

About a dozen students, including Wood and Baratta, gathered in the band room Friday afternoon, still upset about the concert’s cancellation.

‘Doesn’t Seem Right’

Maurice Howard, 15, who plays the trumpet, said he was still in shock. “We’d all worked very hard and we were sounding real good,” he said.

Wood said it is unfair to exclude from the band students whose grades meet academic standards in all but one class. She said she will write to the school board asking that the policy be changed.

“You could have all A’s in your other classes,” Wood said, “but if you get one F, you’re ineligible. That just doesn’t seem right. I feel really sorry for the students who can’t participate anymore.”

Baratta said music may be the only area in which some students excel and that it is not fair to limit their participation in the band because of their grades in other subjects.

McConnell said he and the students had arrived at school an hour early, given up nutrition and lunch breaks and stayed after school for three months to practice for the concert.