The Mercer Island School District band program is the reason we moved to the island 16 years ago. It is the reason that my older son is a music performance and music education double major and my younger son is an enthusiastic sax oboe and sax player. This program is unparalleled in its inclusiveness, cohesion, support of the whole student (not just the musicianship side), and effective teaching about music and life in general. On a daily basis, the band program teaches and models kindness, generosity of spirit and time, humility, grace, patience and every other good human quality you would hope to see in your children, your community, and yourself. The bond that this program creates between the band students is what helps to make this district a positive learning environment and cutting funding to the program will have immediate and negative effects that will be felt by every student and family in the district. Keep the band program as robust as it is and encourage it's growth, not its decline. This is the best investment the district could make in all of our students.
~ Kim Klein (Spencer, Class of 2019 and Aidan, Class of 2022)
