Greetings from Topeka!

The last few months have been very interesting and actually, quite surreal. After twenty-nine years as a music teacher at Otis-Bison, USD 403 and Hays, USD 489, I took over for Reggie Romine, July 1st as the KSHSAA Assistant Director of Fine Arts responsible for music, debate, speech, drama, cheer/dance, approval of events, and sportsmanship. Reggie retired from the KSHSAA and has moved to Florida. Reg has been a strong proponent for music education the past ten years and I want to assure you I will do my very best to advocate for music teachers in Kansas. Many of you also know my wonderful wife Paula. She also began a new job July 1st as the Student Services Secretary, SEC at Auburn-Washburn School District, USD 437. After a sentimental and challenging move from Hays, we have now settled into our new home and we are loving our new jobs and Topeka.

In 2011, the KSHSAA along with the KMEA Festivals Committee, chaired by Dana Hamant began brainstorming and devising the first stages of the Kansas music adjudicator training project. After many hours of diligent work by many awesome music educators the KSHSAA and KMEA premiered the live version at the 2015 KMEA In-Service Workshop. Now, I am very excited to announce that the Online KSHSAA/KMEA Music Adjudicator Training should be up and running by September 1st of this year!

This training will be accessible free of charge from the KSHSAA website: www.kshsaa.org. Emails will be sent from my office to all Kansas music teachers and past Kansas music adjudicators advising them that the training is available and instructions on how to proceed. The training video will primarily be used for State Large Group Music Festival Adjudicators, but portions of the training deal with general adjudicating philosophies and rules that can definitely be transferred to Regional and State Solo and Ensemble adjudication. Music teachers will also find this training very useful when learning about State Large Group Music Festivals and it will be a great tool for educating your music students on what "expert" adjudicators are listening for during music festival performances.

This adjudication training video will be divided into two sections:

Part 1: The General Adjudicating Philosophy with Rules and Regulations that will provide guidance to the novice adjudicator and also remind the veteran adjudicator of important information. It is divided into three five minute videos. Each video will be followed by a question and answer section that requires 100% accuracy in order to continue.

Part 2: offers hands-on instruction from qualified music adjudicators.

I hope you have an awesome school year as you create beautiful music with your students. If my office can assist you in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me or Kathy Wilhelm, my very capable assistant. My office phone number is 785-273-5329, and my email address is shown at the top of this page.

Have a GREAT year!