Parents, Students Upset, Teary Over Assistant Band Director Appointment

A former Big Mac Band Boosters officer stood up in the waning minutes of Tuesday’s Canon-McMillan school board meeting to tell directors she can see the program “just going down the drains.”

“You have upset a lot of people—live with it,” Donna Click told the board during the standing-room-only meeting at which a new elementary music teacher was hired—but not the one favored by band parents and students, one of whom presented directors with a petition to hire someone else.

That candidate, some said, was familiar with the program and the students in the band from her work as an elementary music teacher with the district—and that appointing her to assistant band director position would lend “consistency” after the resignation of Michael Lockman, who formerly held the position.

The board voted to hire Eric Schrader for the elementary music teacher position. There was no discussion by the board on the matter.

That vote passed with one director casting a no vote—Maureen Helinski.

When the meeting adjourned, the crowd filed out, with many of the attendees with tears in their eyes.