Foxborough Music Department Creates a 'Culture of Excellence'

Fifteen different ensembles, hundreds of awards, scholarships, and some of the best-dedicated faculty members, students and parents are statements that can only describe one Foxborough school department - the Foxborough Music Department.

For many years, Foxborough Public School's Music Department has flourished because of the constant support from faculty, parents, students and the school committee. This strong support team understands the importance of music education and is constantly pushing the need for improved tools and curriculum that are needed for student’s success.

At a recent school committee meeting, Steve Massey, Director of Music for Foxboro Public Schools, presented an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the Music Department.

Massey kicked off the discussion by summing up the strengths of the music department.

"What we are proudest of is the culture of excellence that we have established in music," he said. 

Establishing a culture of excellence for any educational program is no easy task. However, Massey believes that the music department was able to do so because of five key reasons - the first being the department's faculty. 

"Music culture is first determined by the faculty and we have a passionate and educated faculty," said Massey. "It makes us intense, demanding and rigorous in our classes." 

The second components in creating a culture of excellence, according to Massey, are parents.  

"Its expensive to play instruments and we have a parent base that gets that. The parents believe it is a valuable experience for their children," he said. 

Massey explained that the music parent’s organization is not a booster club. The Foxboro Music Association (FMA) does not spend money on jackets and hats but instead on commissioning original music, scholarships awards and they do so by spending non taxpayer money.

"They (FMA) spend money on creating new music," said Massey. 

Massey went onto explain that the other keys in creating a culture of excellence include an excellent administration, school committee, school facilities and participation from FHS alumni. 

"We perform a lot in this community. The people of Foxborough have had tremendous access to what we do – the response to that has been fantastic," he said. 

Massey touched upon a few areas of weakness for the department which include giving students more face time with music educators and creating more opportunities for students who want to interact with music, but who may not want to perform in a band or chorus.  

"[Offering courses in guitar] would allow us to have a second teacher on staff in the building, so the music throughout the day wouldn’t be dependent on one person," said Massey. 

Massey concluded his review by telling the committee that he is certain their program is working.

"I know our culture of excellence is working because our music websites are getting hits from all over the world," concluded Massey.