media relations continued...

belong to these types of organizations. When you give back to the community, they will in turn support their local schools.

add a K-12 performance to your schedule for the year. the concert should feature an honor group from the elementary level, as well as groups from the middle and high schools. the students, administrators, and community will see the connection and how important a K-12 program is to your school district. my district does a choral concert and a band concert each year. We have a fifth grade honor choir, a combined middle school choir, the high school symphonic choir, a local college choir, and an adult community choir. the band concert has a combined middle school band, high school symphonic band, a local college band, and a community band. this shows that music is something you can do your whole life and it gets community members involved in the concert as well. use these examples in promoting your programs this year. expand on them and think of ways to reach out to colleagues, students, teachers, administrators, and community members. involve all the music teachers from your district in making plans. a K-12 program is stronger than divided ones. if you promote your program from top to bottom, and bottom to top, then it will show how important this part of education is to everyone. show how great music is from kindergarten to high school seniors and beyond.