Music and arts key to student growth, development
Did you know that Marysville Joint Unified School District offers music programs across all grade levels for all MJUSD students?
After many difficult years without music, MJUSD has made music an integral part of students’ education to support not only the arts, but academics as well. Studies show that music reinforces language skills, supports reading, and strengthens memory and attention skills. The Arts program in MJUSD is so robust that teachers took time together this summer to write the district’s first Strategic Arts Plan which includes information on how Visual and Performing Arts programs will expand across the district. This Plan will serve as a roadmap for schools to utilize the arts funding to successfully implement equal access to high-quality arts instruction so that students can creatively express themselves through diverse artistic mediums.
Music begins in our elementary schools with options for students in the lowest grades focusing on singing, movement, music note identification, rhythm, and pitch activities. Students learn to play a musical instrument in 6th-grade. To support this, MJUSD programs have provided varied instruments that match the many interests of the students with the goal being that students will select an instrument and learn to play it over the course of their first instrumental year while teachers are there to help students discover and grow their talent. The fun part is that parents love to watch their children perform – so the schools provide multiple opportunities for students to display their skills and talents for parents and their communities.
Our middle school programs continue to grow the skills learned in our elementary school programs. Students obtain a deeper understanding of music and develop more advanced musicianship skills. While the music and arts programs drive MCAA’S vision for students in grades 7-12, Yuba Gardens and Mckenney have also grown their programs with Yuba Gardens winning State and National awards.
This year there are 127 musicians at Mckenney and 172 musicians at Yuba Gardens learning to play grade-level music in various genres to develop their skills on their instrument. Students in middle school learn how to read, compose, and perform music of different styles, genres, and difficulties.
Under the tutelage of their music directors, our students perform music for adjudicators to receive feedback on their performances. As stated, the Yuba Gardens program has its own state and local awards and continues to be one of the strongest programs in this region. Mrs. Becky Stewart says, “Our music families and staff at Yuba Gardens are integral components to the great success
of our program. The students work very hard to become accomplished musicians in their time at Yuba Gardens.”
Finally, our high school programs offer diverse instrumental and vocal music as robust elective choices. While some students may get involved for the first time in high school, most of the students continue to expand their skills from elementary and middle school while also beginning to apply the many life skills they have developed to the outside world. In addition to developing the musician, students also
get more performance opportunities to demonstrate their skills and knowledge in a semiprofessional and safe environment.
Students at all MJUSD high schools continue to perform at festivals and community events, while continuing to play more rigorous music, thus requiring greater skills. Mrs. Garcia at Lindhurst states, “When you reach the high school programs, you really begin to put all the music skills and all the life skills into play. As the teacher, you hope that when all is said and done you have created a well rounded human who will carry their arts experience with them into the next
chapter of their life.”
To highlight an extracurricular activity within the music realm, MJUSD supports our middle and high school students in participating in Honor Band activities. Honor bands are an opportunity for our higher achieving students to experience intense learning in a short amount of time. We have students who audition and perform for local, statewide, and national Honor Ensembles.
These ensembles are competitive and students have to demonstrate high levels of skills to be part of this competitive team. The music educators in MJUSD also believe in
being a force of equity in music education. Because of this, our district hosts a director-nominated Honor Band so that more students can have the opportunity to play in an honor ensemble without the competition of schools and communities with more resources.
MJUSD is fortunate to have a dedicated group of music educators to foster a love for music as well as leading their students and ensembles to a high level of achievement in TK-12. To learn more about the visual and performing arts programs offered in MJUSD schools, please email Director Amy Stratton at astratton@ mjusd.k12.ca.us.