Case Study: Guinyard-Butler Middle School

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| Educational Leadership | Organizational Development | Southern Wesleyan University | Renee P Owens | 8/3/2015 | | Guinyard-Butler Middle School in Barnwell, South Carolina, is one of four schools in the small Barnwell 45 district of Barnwell County. The middle school houses two grades, 7th and 8th, and has approximately 325 students. The school has a full time principal who also serves as the transportation director for the entire district. Additionally, there is an assistant principal and a full time guidance counselor. The school does not have a dedicated School Resource Officer or nurse. Over the last several years, there has been a revolving door of principals and assistant principals. This turnover has trickled…show more content…
Students who were in chorus in 3rd grade at the primary school did not have another opportunity to participate in chorus until the 9th grade! When they pulled the sixth grade out of the traditional middle school setting, they did not even consider the beginner band program, which begins in 6th grade, so therefore there was no beginner band program offered to sixth graders for two years. This severely impacted the growth of the high school band over the next six years. The district tried to add a new school and make changes to the activity classes without adding any additional teachers, and the results were disastrous. This move resulted in a middle and high school certified band director having to go down to the primary school and teach 1st grade general music instead of going to the elementary school and teaching beginner band. When the results of the lack of a beginner band started to show in low enrollment in the band classes at both Guinyard-Butler and Barnwell High School, they realized they needed to make a change and added band back to the 6th grade. However, they soon realized they had completely forgotten to include a band room in the plans for the new school, so the beginner band met in the corner of the cafeteria. Due to the scheduling at the middle school, the only time to hold this band class in the cafeteria was when…show more content…
Three main reasons for this decline were lack of facilities, uninterested administration, and scheduling. The middle school saw three different principals in six years, and four different assistants. Not a single administrative leader had a desire to see the arts grow. In fact, seven years ago, one administrator took the room designed as a band room, with storage space, practice rooms, office, exterior access for evening rehearsals, and sound-proofing, away from the band and gave it to a math teacher. The band classes were sent to a building away from the main school, in a suite of rooms not designed for music, much less band classes. It was horrific. Their solution to space problems was to knock a hole in a wall so they would have more room. The result of this brilliant idea was some students were hidden behind a wall out of sight of the director. Not a good situation at all in a middle school! The students were isolated and treated like red-headed step children. The downward spiral and loss of enrollment continued. Drop-outs were at an all-time high. By December, nearly 50 percent of students who had started beginner band and gone on to the middle school, dropped out or just simply quit going to band

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