STRIKE UP THE BAND
New highschool band director takes to the field
POTTSTOWN >> What do you getwhen you combine a die-hard band kid with someone who goes to the University if Pittsburgh to study astrophysics?
Someone who decides against studying astrophysics and follows his passion to become a high school band teacher.
That someone is David Bonilla-Garcia, 24, who has already begun working as PottstownHigh School’s newband director.
Bonilla-Garcia replaces longtime band director Michael Vought, whose retirement in June precipitated a crisis for the high school music program.
Grappling with a state education funding systemthat leaves Pottstown Schools underfunded every year by more than $13 million, the school board and administration did what it always does when a veteran teacher at the top of the pay scale leaves — examine whether the program can get by without a replacement.
But that idea didnot sitwell with many students, teachers, parents and taxpayers who let the school board know in no uncertain terms that they wanted the district’s music program to remain whole.
Ultimately, at a meeting in May that was packed with more than 100 people opposed to the cut, the school board voted to replace Vought.
That replacement attended Quakertown public schools where he was introduced to the trumpet at Richaland Elementary School by a teacher named Todd Silvius.
“We practiced in a closet,” Bonilla-Garcia recalled with a grin.
His parents, a micro-biologist and a paralegal, do not play instruments. His passion for music, came from his school experience, Bonilla-Garcia said.
“I always loved music and I’m a sucker for a sharp-looking marching band uniform,” BonillaGarcia said.
When he told his high school band director, Frank Parker, that he had enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh to study physics, Bonilla-Garcia said “he just smiled and said ‘don’t worry, you’ll be back.’”
Parker, who has since taken the opportunity to say “I told you so,” was right. In 2015, Bonilla-Garcia dropped out of college and took a year off, singing up with a professional drum corp of Cadets based in Allentown.
“I loved Pittsburgh. It’s beautiful, but I wasn’t happy,” Bonilla-Garcia said. By contrast, putting in 14hour days practicing and marching in a hot band uniform in the summer heat did make him happy.
“They had a motto, that they were teaching teachers and I realized they were giving me all the tools I needed,” he said.
“I really love sharing things with people, and I am most passionate about sharing music and I realized that’s what I would be doing as a music teacher,” he said.
So Bonilla-Garcia enrolled inWest Chester University’s storied music education program and did a student teaching stint in Coatesville public schools, an experience, he said that “opened my eyes” to the differences in resources resulting from Pennsylvania’s uneven public school funding system.
“I really feel so lucky to be in Pottstown where there is so much support for the music program,” he said, singling out the Pottstown Schools Music Association and the Phoebe Sime music scholarship program.
He noted that the PSMA has a new president, Becki Kehler, who took over for Kevin Owens, who had held the post for more than four years.
“We learning the ropes together,” Bonilla-Garcia joked.
And the students are learning a new half-time show.
Bonilla-Garcia is taking the show in a new direction. This year it is titled “Tradewinds” and has a theme of 17th century sea exploration.
“It’s all original music and the kids really seem to have taken a lot of interest in it,” he said.
“We started learning some of the marching last night and I have to say, I am really so impressed with these students,” he said.