District Music Awards

The SMMUSD district recently was designated as one of the “Best Communities for Music Education” by the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation. SMMUSD is now one of two Los Angeles County districts that has been honored, and one of the 527 districts in the country for outstanding music education in 2017.To qualify for the designation, districts have to answer multiple questions about their music programs, and submit them to The Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas.As seen in a statement released by SMMUSD, Superintendent Dr. Ben Drati and the district is honored to be recognized for the hard work of the music program.“This award recognizes the outstanding efforts by teachers, administrators, parents, students and community leaders who work together to ensure access to music learning for all students as part of the school curriculum,” Drati said. “We would not have received this recognition without the hard work and dedication of many people providing equity and access to all our students.”Samo band director Kevin McKeown is grateful for the cumulative effort of everyone who has helped the program.“We're blessed to have a program that starts music education in third grade,” McKeown said. “It allows us to have such a high quality music ensembles in a public school setting.”