It was a big day for Denver Public Schools as 16 different houses of learning received $480,000 in a bid to restore music education thanks to Comcast and VH1’s Save the Music program.
Trevista at Horace Mann was one of the 16 and will be getting a new keyboard lab thanks to the gift. The Denver money is part of the $3 million distributed by the two corporations nationwide.
The program was founded in 1997 by John Sykes of VH1 who acted as principal for a day at PS 58 in Brooklyn. Disturbed by the condition of the instruments the students were playing, he was told it didn’t matter since the music program was being cut from the budget. He returned to his office determined to do something about it.
Now with Comcast joining in the effort with VH1, schools are selected from public elementary or middle schools where at least 80 to 85 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch programs. Consequently the grants go to disadvantaged schools. They also look for locals where the music program has been cut in an effort to restore it to the curriculum.
The grants provide $30,000 per school, which normally translates into about 36 instruments, a starting point for the school to build on. Schools can choose from four types of instrumental programs: band, keyboard lab, guitar lab or strings. Remarkably, in a couple of instances, schools have requested Mariachi programs and they were approved.
Superintendent Michael Bennet of DPS was joined by Scott Binder, senior vice president of Comcast Colorado, and Laurie Schopp, director of programs and policy for Save the Music Foundation, at a press event in the new keyboard lab at Trevista at Horace Mann School in North Denver Nov. 25.
Students in the class were learning ...