The program, funded by Santa Monica College, has too few students enrolled to meet the minimum requirement to continue.
By Jonathan Friedman / Special to The Malibu Times
The Malibu High School Jazz Band is in danger of being cancelled for the 2009-10 school year if the program cannot get more students. The jazz band functions as a class as well as a band that performs in occasional competitions and the school district’s annual Stairway-of-the-Stars concert. Santa Monica College has funded the program since before last school year. The college requires a minimum number of students to participate, and so far not enough people have signed up for the course.
SMC spokesperson Bruce Smith said on Tuesday that the minimum number of students required is between 25 and 30, “although there is some flexibility with that number.” He said a minimum amount of students is required for the class because class size is how the college receives state funding for its courses, and if too few students sign up it would not be cost-efficient to offer the course. Smith said he did not know exactly how many Malibu High students had signed up for the jazz band as of Tuesday, but that the number was below the minimum.
“If they get the minimum number of students, there will be a class,” Smith said. “The ball is in their court.”
The jazz band was created 15 years ago by Malibu High music teacher Bill Bixler. He remains the teacher for the program, which involves students taking classes after school, although occasional sessions during the year take place during the regular school day. Due to budget constraints, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District stopped funding the class before the 2008-09 school year. SMC then took over the program, and it is provided to students as a “dual enrollment program,” which means the Malibu High students are in fact taking a college course.
Bixler said in an interview on Monday that he was told last month the college would no longer be funding the jazz band, and it would not be offered this year. But Smith said otherwise on Tuesday. Bixler could not be reached for an interview on Tuesday, but he did leave a voice mail with The Malibu Times stating something is trying to be worked out to keep the program alive.
“They’re really trying to see if they can get this SMC class going again,” Bixler said in the message. “Part of it is we’re a small school, and enrollment has to be 32 per class [a number that Smith disputes], which is impossible [in a school as small as Malibu High].” Bixler stressed in his message that this was not a problem caused by the administration at Malibu High.
Bixler’s wife, Leslie, wrote an impassioned plea in an e-mail to The Malibu Times this week in hopes to get the word out that the jazz band could be in danger. She said she hopes the program could be funded through grants or other methods. In her e-mail, she admitted to having a bias in favor of the program because not only is her husband the teacher, but also her son is a student. But she wrote that the loss of the program would be to the detriment of the school.
“The jazz band has always been there to give us a lift, and a certain credibility,” Leslie Bixler wrote. “Whenever we compete against neighboring schools, Malibu gets the highest awards. Bill’s diverse and accomplished background imparts a kind of professionalism and musicality to his jazz players that is unparalleled, in my opinion, anywhere else in the district.”
Bill Bixler noted in the Monday interview that two classes have filled up at Malibu High for guitar, while interest in the jazz band and band instruments in general has been much less.
“The whole culture of the music is starting to change,” Bixler said. “I find it a concern. So many are going over to guitar rather than playing band instruments. It’s not going where I want to see it go.”