STREET LEVEL : Once-Flat Music Program Beats the Odds, Stays Sharp

The last thing I wanted to do was become a teacher. I wanted to be a professional musician. I pursued it actively for almost 10 years. I played trumpet with the L.A. Philharmonic and the Glendale and Pasadena symphonies.

I would always be getting a call to do things. It was exciting, but I went into teaching because I thought it was time to settle down and look for a secure job where I could have a regular schedule.

I taught for 14 years at Hollenbeck Junior High before coming to Belmont. At Hollenbeck, Paul Gonzales, the 1984 Olympic light-flyweight boxing champion, was a saxophone player in my band.

I had a good time at Hollenbeck, but they cut the music program and gave me a math class. I started taking classes to go into administration so I could become a principal. But you kind of fall in love with the classroom, and I’d rather be a music teacher than anything else.

When I started at Belmont 11 years ago, it was a nightmare. The kids couldn’t even read music, and there was really a discipline problem. The kids and I went at it head on. They wouldn’t show up to class and were stealing instruments and music.

The students didn’t want to work. I was sort of a bull in a china shop. I was trying to teach them to learn different instruments and read music so they could become more functional rather than playing by ear.

We had 48 members when I arrived, and I had to kick out 24. The band members and alumni complained about my methods and tried to get me fired. It was a real battle, but it got better when I started to recruit members on campus. We had 65 band members in 1989. We won the City 4-A (Band and Drill Team) championship that year and won again in 1990. We have 70 to 75 members in the band this year, and we have had as many as 110.

Most of our junior high schools don’t have much of a music program. I find I have the best results when I look for students who are already on campus rather than looking to the junior highs. We grab kids off the lunch lines and get them into beginning instrument classes and teach them ourselves. We are our own feeder school. The more exposure we get, the more students there are who want to participate.

Some of our kids learn to play as many as 10 instruments--whatever is needed for our shows. Maybe a trombone for a certain number and a clarinet for another. The important thing is learning to read music. If you can read music, you can play anything.

We have a lot of kids who have not been raised in the United States. Most of them have no concept of what football is or what a marching band is and don’t know what the instruments are. We have to explain the rules of football and what the game is so they know what’s going on.

The recent budget cuts have hurt everybody in the district. We have a budget of $300 to $400, but it costs $50 to $60 to buy sheet music to perform one arrangement for all the instruments. Obviously, you can’t do much with what we are given.

We have to raise about $10,000 to pay for the music we want and to go to competitions. We sell roses, candy, mugs, T-shirts and jewelry at school or anywhere we have an opportunity. We have played at Raider games for the past four years, and they have been really good to us and helped contribute to our program.

We practice from 7:40 to 8:40 in the morning and from 3:30 to 5 in the afternoon. Sometimes we need to use a little creativity because we don’t have enough instruments when we start getting over 100 members. There are times when we have had to have members march without instruments.

At many of our competitions we are the only inner-city school. You can’t think you’re disadvantaged. I tell the kids whatever problem we have, we have to work a lot harder for the end result.

Security is really good in the district, but vandalism is pretty bad at our school. In October, the storage room was broken into twice, and about $25,000 worth of equipment was taken. A lot of personal instruments were lost. Fortunately, the school administration was able to help us replace the lost equipment.

Some of the most loyal people I know are people who have played in the band for me. We have some teachers at Belmont who have been in the band. One of them, a math teacher, is in charge of percussion. My assistant band director was a former band member at Belmont. A lot of former students come back and offer knowledge to help us out. It’s almost like a family.

I’m hooked on teaching and love my job. It’s rewarding to see students discover. I get renewed life every time I see a new kid. It’s like watching a flower bloom.