I am the HD of a CC middle school feeding a 4A HS. I have been here for five years and love the community and kids. School recently hired an administrator who is gun ho about adding a Mariachi. I have voiced my concerns about adding this, but they have fallen on deaf ears. They are now in the process off organizing schedules for next year with it listed as a class. They want me to teach the classes. My objections are the following: 1. I have no experience teaching Mariachi 2. I do not know any Spanish 3. My string experience is only a semester of college strings 4. School will only fund this out of my Band budget
We recently added another director to the district, so the administration's reasoning is that I will be freed up to add this to my plate.
Should I take my case up to central office, burn bridges with my campus admin, take this as a cue to leave or is there something else?
We do not have a Fine Arts Director and the HS directors don't have any pull at the MS.
Follow the advice of the other posters and put together a huge proposal, as if you were all for it. Let them see how expensive it is. Include training for yourself (summer programs, etc.) Let them know which of the current programs will need to go away to add this one. Where will they rehearse? They'll probably back off.
Actually wish we could have one, the kids would love it, but we don't have staff, students, schedule or the $ to do it.
Re: Advice on what to do
Posted by Let them know the true cost on 1/5/2021, 6:26 pm, in reply to "Advice on what to do"
And don’t back down. Funding proposals. Put together a start up budget and don’t hold back! Trajes can cost $500 and up, add a sombrero to that for $500, that’s $1000 per uniform. Mariachi uniforms aren’t made like band uniforms, they will have to be constantly altered to fit kids and will wear more quickly. You may get 4 years out of them before replacement. Say you plan for 18 performers, that means you’ll need about 25 uniforms in the set. So now you’re at $25,000. The good instruments have to be imported from Mexico so there’s a premium on them (not cheap), and just like any instrument they have to be replaced periodically. Music- there are a few method books out there, most have their music custom arranged -$500/arrangement. Since you don’t have the expertise in this area you’ll have to request an additional position to have someone teach this class -$50,000. Plus travel costs, competition fees, if there are no competitions in your area, then significant travel could be involved.
My bigger concern is your HS guys need to get in on this, if not directly with your principal, then through theirs. What happens with these students after 8th grade when they go to the HS? All of a sudden no mariachi? HS being forced to begin one? Now you have to plan for even more startup and continued funding for the HS group. That’s not fair to them, nor is it fair that the HS will have this dumped on them. MS principals do not need to be setting into motion activities that will create collateral damage for the HS campus down the road. Any HS principal would agree with that.
Yep, I've been there. The idea was floated, I put together a full proposal to do it the right way, and they decided it wasn't worth it. Off the top of my head, I included:
Adding a beginner strings program - your brass players have a beginner path already, to be fair to the strings you need that for them. You can't throw a beginning violin player in with 2nd/3rd-year brass players. Include funding for cellos and basses (you don't really need them for mariachi, but if you're adding strings...) Figure out where this class (more than one?) will fit in the master schedule. Do some analysis/guessing about how this will affect beginner band numbers, and therefore high school numbers down the line.
We had a guitar class already, but you should add a beginner guitar class as well. Include funding for the "specialty" guitar-like instruments that mariachi uses. You need vihuelas (5-string soprano voice) and guitarrons (6 string bass voice, NOT the same thing as an acoustic bass guitar). Do the same guessing about effects on your band numbers.
Are you pulling singers from an existing choir program? How does the choir director feel about that? Is your choir director qualified to teach/help with Spanish diction (keep in mind Mariachi Spanish is not the same as classical choral Spanish). You don't need to be fluent in the language, but you need to know how to read and pronounce the words correctly.
I added some additional electronics stuff (we had nothing) to make sure the group could perform. Traveling PA system, good vocal mics, mic stands, cables, etc.
I also added uniforms. Our school provided nice tuxedos/dresses for band and choir, so it would only be fair to dress the mariachi in traditional uniforms (traje de charro).
I found some kind of summer workshop designed to teach mariachi to band directors, and worked up a quote to send myself to that (including travel, lodging, per diem).
Where will your mariachi group perform? If they're going to any kind of contest, there's a cost to that. If they're having any concerts in addition to what you already do, that should figure into your stipend.
When I was all done, the total amount to start up a mariachi was more than my annual band budget, and I was asking for another 1/2 position. This is why some districts have started adding a mariachi director as an additional position at the high school.
Does your district have an elementary strings program?
Will they be expecting kids to buy instruments or provide their own?
If they don't have existing strings, and the kids don't have instruments, then this program is DOA.
You can't teach beginner strings and then have them move into mariachi style performance in a semester. That's like asking your first-year-in-country ELLs to be in a literary criticism class discussing Shakespeare. You need to explain the scope and sequence of band instruction and the progression of band and orchestra curriculum. Teach your admin.
Your principal also needs to be informed of the cost of the equipment. It's also not a one-time cost, either - you'll need to continue buying violins, vihuelas, guitarrons, and the like as the program grows. This will negatively impact the band program without a budget increase.
If they're saying "teach the class" without providing funding and structure for it, ask the admin how they plan on solving those problems, since this is NOT your purview.
This is why teaching at the 3/4A level can really stink. The district becomes just big enough to do other stuff but they aren’t big enough to afford in doing it the right way. If you want to stay, I would: 1) make it a brass only mariachi. (They’re not giving you new money to make it happen, gotta use what you have.) 2) if you have kids that want to sing, choose traditional songs and have them learn by watching YouTube. Make brass arrangements that work for it. 3) if kids want to play violin, invite them to purchase them. Be open with the deficits you have in your abilities to teach strings. Same story with the gambas. 4) have fun with it. It’s not the kid’s fault if it stinks 5) make a reasonable PowerPoint presentation that shows why this will not be of high quality. Include a budget that you believe would be absolutely necessary to make it a good program. Include teachers into this! They need an actual mariachi guy, string program, guitar program and choral program. 6) be upfront with your love for your band program and that being your reason to be there.
All the stuff you just posted here, have you told this to your admin?
Small district, go directly to the supe. Just my opinion. Tell them you have no business teaching mariachi. Do you offer jazz? Maybe swing the idea of starting a jazz band instead. If they won’t budge, make it a combined jazz/mariachi type class and learn with the kids. Call it “world music” and cover other styles as well, India, Asian, African, Brazilian, etc.
remind your principal how crazy it is when there are UN-FUNDED mandates that he has to do, This is like asking a english teacher to teach chinese- they both write things down, read, have literature, and deal with communications... just like band has so much in common.
