By Monique Roth
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — It’s three months into the new school year, and music is ringing throughout the hallways of the St. John the Baptist Parish School District.

Superintendent Kevin George announced in July the district had hired three music teachers — Gary Dupre, Charae Corey Hosey and Jeremy Rodrigue — to work in the district schools that did not have music programs.

“Now, every school in St. John the Baptist will have music education,” George said.

East St. John High School, West St. John High School and Emily C. Watkins were the only three schools that had music programs prior to this school year.

“We’ve had tremendous feedback from parents and students,” George said this week of the music program expansion. “Our students love and look forward to the music instruction portion of the day, and parents are ready to purchase instruments to begin band practices. It’s been an overwhelming outpouring of support and we have only just begun.”

Dupre, Hosey and Rodrigue met in the summer to develop a three-year plan for what purchases were needed for the music instruction expansion and the direction they wanted to lead the program.

The three teachers, who rotate throughout the district’s elementary schools, spoke before the School Board this month and excitedly reported of the successes so far this school year. They said the students and parents are excited about the offering, and the classes are going well.

“The kids love music class,” Hosey said. “I’ve never really seen so many kids interested in elementary music so much.”

Students in first through fifth grades receive 50 minutes of music instruction once per week.

“Our goal is to create a comprehensive music program,” George said. “Prior to this year, kids in our parish did not have an opportunity to access music instruction until they moved into high school, unless their parents placed them in private classes. That was unacceptable.”

George said the district is building the program from the first grade on up, “with the end goal being middle school band and choir in all of our schools.”

He said in doing so, a great resource for East St. John and West St. John High School music programs would be created, all while exposing younger students to the arts world.

“Our (School) Board took an oath to educate the entire child,” George said. “Education is more than the core subjects.”

He said it is the district’s duty to tap into all students’ talents.

“When we create an atmosphere that welcomes and nurtures all talents, our students excel,” George said. “When they excel, our entire community benefits.”

One School Board member who has been instrumental in the expansion of the music program has been Russ Wise, who said after he was elected to the Board he “began to research some best practices and see how we could make them fit inside what we, as a school system, were doing.”

He said tying music education to academic success was one of the first trends he spotted.

“The fact is there’s a clear correlation between learning music and academic achievement,” Wise said. “Lots of studies have shown that students who play an instrument or sing almost always do better in other subjects, especially math and science. Music involves math, physics and other hard-to-learn subjects, so kids who begin learning to read and perform music also learn them.”