By Vincent Trinh ’25
Geoffry Brookes is no longer the band teacher for DHS. A new music teacher started at the beginning of the 2024 school year, but he left after two short days. Up until now, DHS has been without a long-term band teacher. However, just recently, a new band teacher named Nick Ruel has been officially hired. DHS principal Jennifer Olson shared more information about him in an interview.
Olson remarked, “Mr. Ruel has a very interesting background.” She explained how he had prior experience teaching in both a private and public school environment. Along with this, it would appear that Ruel has a diverse and rich profile in music teaching. Olson stated, “He is a musician. He is a composer. He is an arranger,” and that “he is also involved with the Hurricanes. They march in parades.” The Connecticut Hurricanes is a nonprofit organization with a mission of promoting music. A link to their website is included below.
Briefly, Olson also mentioned how this would be one of the few first full-time music teachers that Derby has had. Up until Brookes, past music teachers were part-time. Ruel has proven to be a promising and highly beneficial additional member to the Derby family. He will begin officially teaching on Oct.7.
The long wait for a music teacher for the 2024 school year not only affected students but staff as well. Without Brookes, DHS experienced an absence of a teacher that affected the whole music program. Olson states, “We were very fortunate that [2 teachers] offered to help step up and fill this short-term void so that kids’ music instruction wasn’t interrupted.” The two teachers mentioned are Italian teacher Hunter Sigona and Technology teacher Thomas Hogan. Both teachers are dual-certified to teach music as well. Sigona handled Pep Band and Jazz club, while Hogan was assigned Chorus and Band Class.
Sigona shared his perspective in an interview. Sigona explains, “I actually emailed Mrs. Olson and Mrs. Bell, and I said because I’m dual-certified, I wouldn’t want the programs to fall off.” Once Sigona was assigned pep band and jazz, he experienced a change in his approach to teaching and his schedule. Sigona shares his experience as a temporary music teacher: “Doing it on my own, it’s just a matter of trying to gauge the skill ability, interest of the people who you have as part of it and then figuring out what instrumentation to have.” He described part of his responsibility saying, “A lot of the pieces are written for full groups and small groups. I had to rearrange some of the music that I wanted for that particular group.” Whether it clashed with his Italian class, he had this to say: “It’s just a matter of balancing my work for Italian and trying to come up with stuff for the jazz ensemble.” Sigona elaborated on these statements. “After my second period, which is my prep, I don’t have any breaks for the rest of the day,” adding, “My schedule’s pretty loaded.”
We also interviewed Hogan for his perspective on being the temporary band and chorus teacher. When asked how he received the offer, we were surprised to hear Hogan say “I actually interviewed for his (Brookes’) position before he came to the school … back in 2020/2021.” Hogan was potentially a music teacher and was music certified. “Because I am certified to teach music in schools, I was asked by Mrs. Olson if I could fill in.” Hogan remarked, “It’s kind of interesting that all these years later I would have the chance to do it (teach band) for a little while.” However, Hogan shares the same issues as Sigona. “I’m very busy,” and, “A couple of my classes had to be shifted around a little bit.” With Ruel starting mid-Oct., most of these concerns will be resolved due to DHS’ prioritization of the arts. Olson details the efforts that DHS has put towards this effort: “We really support the arts at Derby High School. In a lot of communities, the arts is a kind of area where when there’s budget issues they look to the arts to cut…I’ll tell you, it’s just the opposite in Derby. We always put a priority and emphasis on the arts. And we’ve been growing our programming.” A few examples of this growth would be the addition of the drama program. There have also been major investments in new instruments for band students.
“All these come with an expense to them, but we see such benefit for kids in having a really robust experience with the arts that it’s a priority for us,”, says Olson.
The Connecticut Hurricanes Link:
http://cthurricanes.org/mission/
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