001Welcome hot dogs to the April Community Schools of Frankfurt Superintendent Town Hall. I am Matt Rooda, the proud superintendent of the Community Schools of Frankfurt, where we strive to ensure excellence for every student, every day. I stated in the February town hall that I would start inviting staff and students on the program who are moving the academic, behavioral and staff and student retention, athletic and facility needle. I shared with the viewers in February that in the community schools of Frankfurt we have three pillars of excellence that will guide us in achieving excellence in these affforementioned areas. pillar of literacy, community, and post-secondary expectations. We will begin uh sharing with the public what sets the community of Frankfurt apart from area schools, virtual and brick andmortar school districts around the state and the nation. Last month,
002Mr. Josh Marshall, assistant principal at Frankfurt Middle School, shared how they at the middle school are moving the behavioral needle by the implementation of the Ron Clark Academy House System. Some great results happening with student behavior due to the schoolwide positive behavior support system. This month, I am fortunate I invited Jason Hutton to town hall. His band and orchestra programs are providing kids the opportunity to not only excel in performances throughout the year, earn gold medals at the state solo ensemble, but also provide students with a pathway to graduation. Mr. Hutton, thank you for being on the program with me today. Uh my first question is where do you hail from? Okay. Uh hey um good to be here first of all. Uh, and I hail from Greenfield, Indiana. Before I before I was in
003Greenfield though, I actually was born and raised a little bit in uh, California until uh, sixth grade. When I was in sixth grade, I moved to Greenfield and went to Greenfield Central High School. Okay. Uh, after that, I went to Butler and, uh, got my degree from Butler University uh, in music education. Uh and then I came to Frankfurt and taught uh for two years in Frankfurt 2001 and 2002 school years and then moved back back to California taught for uh eight years in San Diego. Okay. Where I got my masters I got my masters uh uh in educational leadership from San Diego State. Okay. Go Aztecs. Okay. And then uh moved back to Frankfurt uh and I've been here since. So Indiana and California. Yep. A little bit of both. So, you've shared a
004little bit about your background as you've gone through school. What What got you interested in the performing arts? I I would say I was a kid going into high school where uh I honestly thought performing arts were too cool for me when I was in 8th grade and I said there's but there's a requirement where I have to have a performing arts credit uh going into high school and I tried it uh and I fell in love. If I had never had that requirement and and never tried band in high school, I I wouldn't be here today. I fell in love, ended up becoming drum major of my high school marching band. Uh and then picked my career from that and I've never looked back. My wife will tell you anytime that something uh drum
005majors or a drum line happens on TV or wherever we are. I mean, that's one of my most favorite things performances to listen to. So to hear you say that you were drum major that that's awesome. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. What what are your roles and responsibilities here at Frankfurt High School at the high school? I'm the m music department chair. Uh and I I I teach classes. I teach history of rock and roll class. I teach guitar classes. I've taught piano in the past. I teach uh multiple band classes and I teach orchestra class. Also a mariachi class. Uh I I I teach the marching band. Uh just a lot anything to do with music. Uh wherever you see the band or orchestra, you know, you'll see me there. All from
006a guy who thought music, performing arts was too cool for school, right? A and look at the well-rounded music education kids can get from your programs here. Thank you, Mr. Hutton. We're going to take a break right now to go to uh Farley's Frankfurt fun facts. And when we come back, we'll have more with uh Mr. Hutton. Welcome back to another episode of Harley's Fun Facts. Today, I'd like to thank Donna Blue Ball for her contribution to this month's fact. Mrs. Blueball provided us the 1928 1929 55th annual report for our city schools. This report highlights salaries uh and other costs associated with operating the schools including utilities back in 1928. It also provided a list of students and staff and many interesting facts about the schools during that time. A couple facts I'd like
007to share with you from this report was the enrollment of the community schools of Frankfurt back in 1928. The enrollment was approximately 2,836 students. Compare that to today. We have 2,864 students, just 26 students more. The class sizes back in 1928 were about 35 students per class. Compare that to today where we have about 25 students per class. The cost associated with the 89 teachers employed during 1928 was about $138,000 annually to support their salaries. To give you an idea, that means their salary was around $1,500 per year or an average of about $30 per week they were paid. Compare that to today with our 200 plus teachers at the community schools of Frankfurt. We spend about 11.1 million each year on their salary or an average of about $55,000 for an annual salary for
008our teachers here at Frankfurt. Energy costs were also quite different. The energy cost for water and lights as well as janitor materials back in 1928 all combined had an annual cost of about $5,500. Compare that to today. We expend about 72 to $78,000 per month, not per year on just our electric bill. Quite the difference from 1928 to n to 2025. That's all I have for Farley Straford fun facts. Have a great day, hot dogs. Welcome back to the April Town Hall with today's guest, Mr. Jason Hutton, band and orchestra teacher at Frankfurt High School. Mr. Hutton, let's uh talk about programs. Why, if a if if I'm a parent and I'm thinking about sending my kid to Frankfurt High School um why would a parent consider sending a a their kid to Frankfurt High
009School um for either your band or orchestra program? What's great about your programs? I mean, I can easily speak to this because number one, I am a parent and my my own kids go to the school. Uh, my own kids are in the band. Uh, so one of the things I know, I know there's a lot of choices for where to send your kids to school, you know, myself included. Uh, for for music, we know from past history when we tried to teach during the pandemic that online doesn't work. Um the the thing that is fantastic about playing music is the community, getting to be together uh with other students, getting to share experiences playing together uh in person. Um that's that's what it's all about. Uh the relationships that you build with with friends
010in band or orchestra. Uh and the relationships you build through common experiences. Uh we tried to play together when we went online. we went virtual and the technology just wasn't there and we were never able to recreate that experience that we have uh in person every day. Um so you why would I send my kid to Frankfurt? Why do I send my kid to Frankfurt? Uh because we have that experience that you can't get virtually. Uh we have the experience that you can't get at necessarily other county schools of being in marching band. Um the our school has a very proud tradition of marching at the state fair band day uh every year. We've worked hard every year. I've been I've been a band teacher a long time. Uh so it you we when you
011don't have the success um or the success is very incremental uh when you finally break through like we did this year. Uh we got the highest score I believe since 1988. I checked all the records that were available. I think we got the highest score since 1988 and the third highest score for Frankfurt ever at the state fair band. Uh so when you finally have that that success, it feels good, but honestly um that's not really what it's all about. It's about working hard and making a great performance and making lifelong memories um you know with with between me with the students and just the the the learning and the times that we shared together. Um, also, you know, things Frankfurt has, um, that are awesome that maybe other schools don't necessarily have. Um, we
012have a mariachi program, uh, which, uh, you know, gives kids a a totally different experience that they don't really get at a lot of schools. Uh, we one of my favorite things every year is, uh, we do a musical. Uh, and my the musical is always one of my favorites because it lets the uh theater, it lets the choir, lets the band, lets the orchestra all work together uh towards a common goal where a lot of times the rest of the year we're kind of we're kind of separate. So, next week is our musical. Uh, it's the newsies. Hope hope you come and watch it. Uh, and um, other things we've done in the past, last year we and the the last two years before this one, we created our own winner show. We created
013a beauty beauty and the beast show um that uh was for Christmas time and we put it on two different nights and it was just like something we made from scratch from the script to putting the music together uh to everything, the acting, the dancing um and the year before that we did a Charlie Brown show. So that's something that you're not going to get necessarily at other schools cuz we we created that. So um but the number one thing I think you get from being in band orchestra here is is you get me. Um, I think the number one thing for any any subject is the teacher, right? And and with me, you're going to get somebody who's knowledgeable and who is uh caring is who's going to work very hard uh to make
014sure that uh we do well. At state soleno ensemble this year, we had 25 kids go to state soleno ensemble in 16 different events. Uh that's something and it and at district soleno ensemble we had 100 gold medals and maybe two silver medals. Uh and it and while that's awesome, it's also not necessarily surprising because these kids work very hard. Yes. Um they work hard all year long. You'll see them performing at the hot dog festival in the summertime, the rises festival in September. Um with the orchestra plays at farmers markets. Um so not to mention all the all the sporting events and we played at volleyball games for the first time this year which was incredible. Always looking for opportunities to perform. What did you have this past weekend that uh uh kids came
015back uh gold gold medals for everyone this past weekend? So, so in uh January and February, we have district and and uh state solo and ensemble, but for this past Friday, we just finished up uh our isma organizational festival. So, it's basically the one where we take the whole band and the whole orchestra separate and we take the band and they'll play three songs uh for three different judges and then get a rating and the same thing for the orchestra. They'll play their own three songs uh for three different judges and get a rating. Yeah. So, they both got gold on Friday. Awesome. So, it's been a great year. Great to hear. Please share with the viewers if you didn't already answer this question and for um banded orchestra is now a pathway graduation track
016here at Frankfurt High School. It's a locally created pathway. What uh prompted you to get that started here at Frankfurt High School? Uh you know what prompted me? I I think we have great a great counseling department honestly who are they're looking for ways to uh help us out uh and keep you know get kids engaged in music. Uh so the the pathway you and this is for band or orchestra or choir uh you have to take a beginning level class so maybe beginning band and an intermediate and advance you have basically have to take three years uh so and a lot of kids do that anyway. I see. And then they have to take an intro to business or intro to education class as well. So that's basically the requirement. take three years of
017band, orchestra or choir and then take that business or education class and then you can fulfill a new music pathway uh to uh graduate. And another thing that is just coming out this year is that uh so for any eighth graders out there thinking about doing marching band uh marching band is going to count as PE credit for uh freshman year PE a semester of freshman year PE credit. So, anybody interested or on the fence about marching band, join it and you can get that credit, get your PE credit. Mr. Hutton, what's your vision for Frankfurt High School performing arts? Is as good as you're now? And you talked about incremental growth and some of the successes that your kids have had. Um, what is your vision for the performing arts here? Uh, really Frankfurt
018High School, but K12 in in the community schools of Frankfurt. um what the vision for the and here's the thing I I wanted I'm glad you brought that up because I you know we do some great things at the high school and uh it couldn't happen without the the education these kids get you know starting in kindergarten with their music teacher I know like Mr. and Mrs. Troyer have been an big impact on the music uh in the community right now at the middle school we have uh uh Mrs. Mitchell and we have Mrs. Whitner uh who do an outstanding job with the band and the orchestra. So having great teachers um makes my job kind of easy when they get here and these kids can already read and play. Uh it makes for a
019great experience. Also um you know we have that new I I got the opportunity to tour the new um auditorium at the middle school. Oh yes. So having that having that facility uh there where they're going to experience playing in an awesome auditorium uh just when I went on that tour I was blown away uh at the experience that just for generations these uh these kids are going to have uh even when they're in middle school to be to be doing great things on a great stage uh and it when you perform on a stage um you know versus in the gym it just makes you feel so much even prouder uh to be up there on display. So, uh, my vision for for the music is just to, you know, number one, keep doing
020the same cuz I feel like we've had great teachers for a long time. There's a history of especially band and orchestra. Hey, let me shout out Janet Priest, uh, who, you know, for 50 years has been working hard to make sure Frankfurt orchestra and she's still to this day, uh, is doing that to this day, you know, she might even be down there in my room right now, you know, helping me get ready for orchestra. So, shout out to her. Uh, thank thank you to her. Um, you know, Jack Burroughs was a band teacher for a long time at the middle school. Did an outstanding job. Um, you know, I I know I would miss Amanda Long. Uh, people that that did a great job in the past here. Uh, thank you to you guys,
021right? Because, uh, Max Blessing was a former band teacher uh, from back in the 90s and 80s. So, uh, Mr. blessing is the one that has taken uh the band to uh state fair bandaid and made the sweet 16. Um I can't remember exactly how many times, but um that's our goal. So we're looking for our vision. Our vision is keep working hard and always keep improving. Uh while we had our best scoring year since 1988, we still haven't made that sweet 16. We were 19th place last year. So getting close. Um we're Yeah, we were a couple spots away. So all right. Do you want to call it now though? when when you're going to when you're going to make that there, Mr. Utton. Not just G giving you a hard time, but I
022I know I'd love to say it's going to be this year, but I'm not going to say that. All I could say is we're just going to keep doing our best and wherever that ends up, we'll be happy. With your leadership and the great kids we have at Frankfurt High School, I'm sure it will be soon. Hot Dog Nation, I hope you enjoyed getting to know more about Mr. Hutton and the Frankfurt High School band and orchestra programs. We are blessed to have Mr. Hutton and his work ethic, passion, and ability to build great relationships with kids in turn gives g kids the opportunity to be great performers. Thank you uh Mr. Hutton for sharing your information and your love for the performing arts uh today and your student talents. We we know that great
023performing arts programs retain and attract great students. Thank you for investing in the students here at Frankfurt High School and and you know creating a culture of excellence in our performance arts programs. Signing off from the hot dog town hall at Frankfurt High School. Have a wonderful day and enjoy this segment of Roaming with Roa. Hey, welcome to the April Roaming with Roa. We're at Frankfurt High School. I'm going to ask kids today, what do they love most about Frankfurt High School? Looking forward to the the uh great responses that we'll get from our high school students. You were on Roaming with Roa. You've been on our program quite a bit before. So, quite a bit over the years. And you were my doppelganger, weren't you? And uh big broadcast. You did a great job,
024by the way. Hey, the question today is, what do you love about Frankfurt High School? Uh, I love all the people and how you can interact and just always get along. You know what I love most about the school is the school lunch. The school lunch is really good. School lunch is good. What's your favorite lunch? Probably the pull- aart pizza. All right. All right. Um, I would probably say like the people here. Um, the teachers and the people. Love the teachers and the people. Thank you, Yur. What do you love most about Frankfurt High School? The teachers, friends, like people I see every day, you know? Uh, friends and the teachers. Friends and teachers. All right. Meeting the new people that come here every day. Meeting the new people every day. Hello. This is
025Officer Meyers, our our SRO, keeping our school safe. What do you love most about Frankfurt High School? Just being able to come back in here all the time. I graduated from here in 1995, so just being able to come back and interact and see all the changes and pick on my daughter who goes to school here. Okay. All right. Thanks for your bringing your daughter here. Appreciate it. Madison, what do you love most about Frankfurt High School? The late Wednesdays. The late Wednesdays. Thank you. Okay, good. Glad you like those that you can be around your friends in the cafeteria. It's like all the groups, all the grades are mixed up together, so you can be with other like grades. All right. Together. I love it. Thank you. Uh my friends, your friends probably my
026friends and some good teachers. Elijah. And you've been on Roaming with Roa before. You're a professional here. Hey, what do you love most about Frankfurt High School? I really like the theater. It's fun. We're doing a show called Newsies. Got Newsies coming up. That's next week, isn't it? Yep. That's next week. Dawson, what do you love most about Frankfurt High School? Um, I like the class selection. I think Quase Arena. Quase Arena. All right. There's a lot more classes. A lot more classes. Okay. Thank you. How like there's kind people here. Lot kind people here. Looks like you're studying hard here. Matilda, what do you love about Frankfurt High School? Coming to be with my friends. Coming to be with your friends. Isn't there a book uh written about you, Matilda? I don't know. Okay.
027I like um the teachers. You like the teachers? Okay. The teachers are nice. The teachers are nice. Thank you. Being with my friends. Being with your friends. Thank you. Jaden, you were a you were a science fair champion, weren't you? Once upon a time. Yep. Impressive guy. Hey, what do you love most about Frankfurt High School? Uh the staff. They're awesome. Everybody in it's awesome. Okay. I love this place. All right. Thank you.