Hawkins Middle School comes together 'in concert'

Shephard Bull calls accomplishment ‘huge’

Kirk Boxleitner | May 05, 20220

A performance by the Hawkins Middle School Orchestra for the North Mason School Board on April 21 led middle school Principal Robert Kalahan to catch the school board up on the school’s progress through COVID.

After the orchestra played the songs “Sparkle,” “Pepperoni Pizza” and “Dragon Slayer,” Kalahan said seeing all the students “playing together was something I was really hoping for” and is indicative of “a lot of really great things happening” at Hawkins Middle School.

“Another example is sports,” Kalahan said. “We had more than 180 students turn out for sports in the spring. Unfortunately, with cut programs, not that many will actually get to play. Still, it’s just amazing how many kids want to be involved and do things after school, so we’re trying to expand how many activities we can get them involved in, since we know there’s a hunger for it.”

The middle school orchestra includes as many as 30 students, in grades six, seven and eight, he said. The school has been able to loan some instruments to students, while the community has donated “quite a few” others, with one recent donation revealed to be an antique, which Kalahan said would be auctioned off to support the boosters.

“What surprises you most about how things are going, considering all the troubles we’re experiencing?” District 4 Director John Campbell asked.

“It’s not the troubles that surprise me the most,” Kalahan said. “It’s been the positivity that people are showing. The staff have been a great family, working together and wanting to do what’s right for the kids, themselves and each other.”

Kalahan credited the students with “rising up to take responsibility and make things better,” especially within the past month or two, when “our ASB blossomed into wanting to do activities and run assemblies,” yielding a dance in May, a planned field day and a talent show for the end of the school year.

“That engagement is so meaningful, because they’re taking ownership of what’s happening in their own lives and community,” Kalahan said.

“Do you feel like this is progress and momentum over how things were going earlier in the year?” District 5 Director Arla Shephard Bull asked, adding that she and District 2 Director Leanna Krotzer had attended “some round tables at the high school, and at least earlier in the year, in the dead of winter, we know kids were feeling a little bit down with the omicron surge.”

“Last year, we had a great year,” Kalahan said. “Kids were coming in smaller class sizes, and smaller groups that didn’t seem to engage before were doing so. It was pretty amazing to see what they could do and put together. The beginning of this year was chaotic and harder for everybody, until at some point, people just said, ‘We’re done with this. We want to be having a good time. We want to be part of what’s going on around us.’ ”

Shephard Bull described it as a “huge” accomplishment to engage students, and make them “want to be there,” while Kalahan said one key to generating that student interest and engagement is to “make sure we have those opportunities available for them to step up, because if they’re not there, then the kids just go right back to where they were before.”

District 3 Director Laura Boad said Kalahan’s “positive leadership” had provided “a terrific role model” for his students, while Krotzer referred to the orchestra as proof of how much those students can accomplish, in both literal and figurative concert.

“They came together, and you could hear it,” Krotzer said. “That says a lot about how growth is. They grow up, mature and learn how to work together, and it’s really neat to see that.”