No Interviews

A very good friend of mine was interested in moving from his elementary band director position to the high school band director in his district. A known entity, this man was an incredible educator, super successful with the program he built, as well as a famous and well respected musician in the entire area. His district put him through the ringer, making him interview multiple times, bringing in different instruments to perform on to show he could play, and multiple teaching demonstrations. It infuriated me. I felt that the district should fully “know” what he was capable of and the fact that they had to run him through this gauntlet was a waste of time. They knew this teacher, what he was about, how he interacted, his musicianship and everything about him. Making him go through this process created tension and I felt it was unecessary.

Last year we did interviews for the leadership positions in the marching band. We never did this before and wanted to give it a try. Many kids were very stressed out going through this process, students who already are stressed out being in an academic high school. After the season was complete we re-visited the idea of doing interviews. I felt that the interviews really accomplished nothing. We knew everyone, what they were capable of, and knew their potential. We are a family and live together during band camp and really know each other. I don’t even think any positions were different due to the interviews. So this year we are simply going with the short online application. We will be using all our information, attendance, attitude, musicianship, service, leadership, and putting that criteria together to make our decisions. We will be posting the positions when they are finalized, which will probably be sometime after the school year is over and before camp. Remember, we will be watching you in school, at the rehearsals in the Spring, and adding that to our impressions when making these decisions as well.