Amid budget crisis, Olympia elementary music teacher raises funds for instruments and more

Ever since Heather Matthews started teaching music and band at McKenny Elementary School nearly three years ago, she’s had to think outside of the box to get her students the resources they need.

In March, she raised $1,000 to outfit her class with electric keyboards to teach students how to play piano. The GoFundMe reached its goal in less than 24 hours. Over the past two and a half years, she’s raised more than $15,000 for her classroom.

“Over a span of time you end up spending a lot of your own money because there’s something that you want to teach and you get so fed up not having what you need,” she said.

Every year Matthews said she puts on an instrument petting zoo to let students try out different music-making tools. It’s led to her teaching different age groups how to play recorder, xylophone, drums and more.

But the piano is always the most popular instrument, and there’s only one upright piano in the music room. That and a couple electric keyboards have been enough to catch the attention of dozens of her students.

Three pianos in total isn’t enough to teach nearly 300 students, though. Matthews said she secured some funding from the school’s budget and its Parent Teacher Organization to pay for seven small electronic keyboards with headphone jacks. She still needed 22 more.

Matthews then set up the GoFundMe and set the goal at $1,000. She shared a story on the fundraiser page about taking a limited amount of piano lessons growing up and how she believes that with a little support, her students could become proficient nearly all on their own.

Matthews said many of the kids she teaches come from families who aren’t able to afford private music lessons.

The idea is to teach her students what each note looks like on the piano using the smaller keyboards. They can practice melodies and songs on those and then take turns using the upright piano and full-size keyboards.

“I am a huge believer in giving curious students the tools they need to teach themselves,” Matthews said.

Matthews said the keyboards will be available to all grades, but she’s focusing most heavily on teaching fifth graders. With the additional keyboards, she’s able to start second graders on xylophones before they move to recorders in third grade. The instruments get progressively harder to learn, from ukulele in fourth grade to piano now being available for fifth graders.

She said she wants to teach students just enough to where they can play a few simple songs on a variety of instruments. But if they’re motivated, she said, and they love the instrument, they can keep up with it.

“We have such a thriving art scene and music scene and theater scene in Olympia,” Matthews said. “All of that has to come from somewhere, and we really have to start emphasizing it. It doesn’t come from a vacuum.”

Matthews said she believes the piano is important to teach early because most music major programs have a piano proficiency exam. She said anyone who joins choir should be able to pick their part out on a piano so they can sing independently and learn harmonies.

“I just feel like piano is one of the most powerful instruments that you can teach kids to really give them an understanding of music and music theory,” Matthews said.

The need for more funding

Matthews said there were very few instruments at McKenny when she started teaching. She began with a cart that had nine xylophones on it, which she said didn’t do a lot for classrooms of 25 kids each.

She said she began her school year with a classroom budget of $275. Some of her colleagues are allotted $2,000. The district had already pushed to supply more funding to the music department, and it wasn’t enough for instruments. Matthews had tried the Olympia Education Foundation, but it didn’t have money available. That’s when she turned to fundraising.

She began with using DonorsChoose and Amazon wish lists, as well as spending her own money to get kids instruments. At one point she tossed GoFundMe into the mix. She’s raised $15,000 for her students since. She said $4,000 came from the OEF, $6,000 from Music Aid Northwest for tubano drum kits, and $800 from the McKenny PTO.

Matthews said McKenny staff have been supportive of her fundraising efforts. She said the PTO at McKenny has helped share her fundraisers so they reach their goals, which they all have.

She said she was shocked and amazed the keyboard fundraiser met its goal so quickly. A fundraiser she posted March 20 for a mobile ukulele storage rack also met its goal in a matter of days.

“There’s a lot of support in the community for the arts,” she said. “And there’s a lot of people who understand how strapped teachers are.”

Matthews has a classroom fundraiser page set up for other projects and ongoing costs. She’s currently trying to raise about $2,600 for an i-Pad station so students can use Garageband to learn how to read and write music.

Matthews said she’s well aware of the funding issues the Olympia School District has been facing, and how McKenny’s future lies in the balance. The board has yet to make a decision on whether to close the school on Olympia’s east side to save money.

“I plan on continuing to teach elementary music and so by doing it through GoFundMe, no matter where I land, I can take those keyboards with me to teach whatever kids I end up teaching,” she said.