01.21.04
CHS music room may garner new walls
by Amanda Dumond of the Aroostook Republican

CARIBOU -- A severe shortage of space is plaguing the music department's facilities at Caribou High School and is hindering music education at the school.

Take for instance, the strings ensemble, which practices in the athletic training room with water bottles and weights piled around them--or students who prepare for concerts in a band room stuffed with filing cabinets and extra equipment--or the chorus that loses its practice space in the Caribou Performing Arts Center when another group needs the theater.

Such crowded conditions for the music department have spurred a group of alumni and seniors from the high school to seek funding to build a music building. The proposed site would be located next to the CPAC and extend into the center's parking lot.

The committee of concerned students has garnered the support of Sen. Susan Collins, who will serve as a honorary chair of their group.

"When the school was constructed, the band room was built for 50 people," Brandon Bouchard, committee chair and a freshman at Bowdoin College, said. "Now we have about 92 students in the band, and there's just no room."

With the room filled to capacity, the strings ensemble and the chorus spilled out into the surrounding hallways. Because conditions were less than ideal there, the chorus began using the performing arts center and strings the athletic training room.

The acoustics of the band room are also an issue. When Bouchard played the trombone in high school, he said he could not hear the instruments in the front of the room, thus making it difficult for him to adjust his playing. He could hear the different parts of a piece for the first time when he got on stage to perform. The band would also spend precious rehearsal time setting up and tearing down equipment in the room and on the CPAC stage. Music from the band room also can be heard in the hallway and other classrooms nearby.

The committee, consisting of three graduates and five seniors, formed in fall 2001 and first contacted Wenger Corporation to assist them with creating a preliminary floor plan of the proposed music building.

"They gave us sizes we would need for rooms for the band and chorus," he said.

CHS Director of Music Vaughn McLaughlin inspired the committee to advocate for a music addition.

"He said one day that it would be great to have a new building someday, and we thought, why not look into it?"

Members of the committee are Sen. Susan Collins, honorary chair; Brandon Bouchard, chairman and Bowdoin College freshman; Molly Bell, secretary and University of Maine at Farmington freshman; Whitney Plourde, treasurer and CHS senior; Jennifer Bubar, secretary and University of Maine at Orono freshman; Kylie Davis, Allison Hitchcock, Sarah Michaud, and Heather Brissette, all CHS seniors.

School officials also have realized the need for better music facilities. Bouchard said Superintendent Frank McElwain, the Caribou Board of Education and CHS principal David Ouellette have been very supportive of the project. The school board backed the group's concept idea for the building in August 2003.

"They've gone way out of their way to help us with this," Bouchard said.

Also at last week's school board meeting Ouellette pointed out the need for expansion.

"I'm afraid that the strings ensemble will forever associate Beethoven with the smell of Bengay," he said when referring to the location of their practice room.

Other things he noted needing improvement were the lack of storage space for instruments, no practice rooms and the need for more space for the CPAC, including a changing room.

The plan for the facility is to have seven practice rooms, a band room and choral room that hold 100 students each and a storage room as well as two offices for music instructors. Bouchard noted that the space can also be used to host festivals like All-Aroostook, which currently has no venue large enough to accommodate all the schools in the area.

"We want to allow our music students to study music and have music technology," Bouchard said.

To date, the music committee has collected $500, which was donated by the class of 2001. Bouchard said they are using this money to cover the cost of stamps and letters. They will soon mail 500 letters to the community and to nationwide foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation asking for financial support.

The overall response to the project has been favorable so far, Bouchard said. Other teachers have caught the vision and are imagining how much extra space would be available.

"Another benefit is that the performing arts center is gaining the room they need too," Bouchard said.

The committee estimates that the facility will cost $1.2 million. Bouchard, however, is confident that the community will step forward and help to build the music building, just as they volunteered their efforts to build the ski shack behind the high school, thus keeping the cost of construction low.

"Right now we want the community to know what we are doing and to make it as much a community project as we can," Bouchard said.