The stipends for the Director, the Costume Coordinator and the Technical Director are stipends paid by the district. Compared to the totals that I saw on a recent feed that some of you are getting, ours are paltry. These stipends were established before I started teaching here 27 years ago. They didn't do many musicals and I don't know if or how they paid anyone else when they did. Also before I came, they got the district to make a commitment toward royalties. As they didn't do many musicals, what they gave probably covered it. That fund is now somewhere around $2000. So, with 9 performances of the musical it certainly doesn't come close to covering the cost of rentals and royalties but it helps.
When I was hired to head the theatre arts program, the band director, the choir director and I started doing musicals every year. They were so happy to have them back on a routine basis that, for many years, they volunteered their time. On and off I tried to get stipends for the music director, the vocal director and the choreographer added to no avail -- I will tell you, honestly, that most of the time, it was stopped on the union level. They refused to put it on the table. Finally, one year I had enough and I told students, parents, the bargaining team that the musical that I had announced for the following year would be the last one unless I could get stipends for those positions. After 15 years of musicals that were about to go away, the union finally sat down those of us on the directing teams at the schools in the district. We had a great meeting in early December; everything good to go. In January, the bottom fell out in the CA economy with huge freezes being put on budgets. One of the way the district dealt with it was -- no new stipends! Okay, but I'm holding firm, no more musicals. Well, the parents rallied and asked if they could start a booster club to raise the funds for the stipends. I was hesitant. I had seen what hell other booster clubs had put teachers through. I made it clear that raising funds was the only purpose of the booster club. They were not to dictate policy, become stage parents, etc. As that first group had no desire to do so, that was the climate that was created for the boosters and I have been delighted to have them in my corner for the last seven years. They not only raise funds for those stipends but they raised money so we could fly actors in Willy Wonka, they have purchased new equipment for the building, etc.
Other than that, we are 100% self-supporting... and I am glad for it. Regardless of the economy, our budget cannot be touched by admin because it is a club and all of the money goes into our account in the ASB funds.
Hope that helps.
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Helen Dixon
Oakley CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-27-2015 15:08
From: Heather Brandon
Subject: How does your school fund Musicals?
We are 100% self-funded. Ticket sales from one show fund the next. I keep my whole season in mind when I budget for the year. If I know I have a high cost show in the spring, I try to counter with keeping costs low earlier.
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Heather Brandon
Bakersfield CA
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