Monday Notes

Happy (almost) summer! Thank you for a great year of music, collaboration, and instruction. As we wrap up this school year, please take a moment to see the important information below.

This will be the last regular Monday Notes until August, but please continue to check email for occasional summer updates.

Just a reminder about the advocacy information that went out last week. Please take a minute to email your elected officials as well as share the information with parents and ask that they also write letters. Remember personal stories carry more weight than anything!

A quick summary:

There is a proposal being considered that would remove dedicated funding available for elementary fine arts through the Fine Arts Education Act (FAEA) and consolidate it with the State Equalization Guarantee Distribution (SEG) funding. This change would do away with "earmarking" money to be spent on arts education and allow districts to use it in other areas. The proposed change to FAEA would have an impact across all grade levels so please take action today!

Please keep the following in mind when emailing your elected officials:

• Do NOT copy and paste the sample letter included in my previous email. Legislators have a scanning system that most likely will send the similar emails to spam.
• DO write your own legislators, but write a personalized email from your own experience, etc. You can use key points from my previous sample e-mail, but the email MUST be original and in your voice. The same holds true if you write to members of the LFC and LESC.
• If you speak to friends, family, colleagues, etc., please inform them of the same points I have made above.

Please act this week and if you don't hear from your elected official, email again. We feel this is one of the most important pieces of advocacy we have addressed in recent years. Together we can make sure that funding isn't reduced!

Just a reminder about the Band MPA Judging Symposium. If you plan to attend please complete registration by June 18th. Original post is below:

NMMEA is excited to announce a new event scheduled for the summer of 2024. Mark your calendars for June 26th and 27th, as we present the inaugural Virtual MPA Band Adjudicator Symposium. Our aim is to expand the roster of adjudicators and equip them with enhanced tools to foster the development of ensembles. The symposium will run from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, punctuated by a lunch break. Ahead of the event, attendees will receive MPA recordings for review and scoring. During the symposium, participants will engage in score comparisons, delve into the rationale behind scoring decisions, glean insights on crafting stellar adjudicator recordings, and gain access to a plethora of resources essential for effective MPA adjudication. Completion of the symposium will prompt the sharing of participant names with districts, thereby increasing the size of our adjudication pool.

Our strategy involves piloting this program exclusively for band adjudicators this summer, with plans to extend the symposium to choir, guitar, and orchestra in the summer of 2025. To this end, if you're a choir, guitar, or orchestra director interested in being a part of the planning committee, please inform Neil Swapp.

• Click here to register

Unfortunately we will not be hosting the Summer Music Educators Workshop this year due to decreased registrations. If you registered via the website and made payment, Neil Swapp will be reaching out to you with a refund.

If you would like to provide feedback on what type of summer professional development would be helpful to you, please email Neil Swapp with ideas.

Please help spread the word about open teaching positions throughout the state so that we ensure that all students have a great music teacher next year. Open positions are posted at this link. If you have an open position in your district or school, you can post the job at the same link.

Lets get great teachers for all positions!

Remember to check (and have your students check) the All-State audition material as there have been several minor changes and clarifications added.

All-State audition learning tracks are now available via Pipe's Practice Trax! Thank you Shera and all involved to make sure we had quality and accurate learning tracks this year! Please make sure to obtain the learning tracks now so your students have access to them over the summer. In the fall, the concert rep will be ready and posted on the same website.

• Click here to order tracks

Now a few logistics:

• For teachers using school credit cards and need to pay tax-free, please send district tax exempt paperwork, preferably an NTTC from their district finance person to Shera Piper at shera@pipespracticetrax.com.