Chi-Hi band in new hands
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BY JEFFREY HAGE jeff.hage@lee.net
Wednesday, November 9, 2005 10:35 AM CST
The Chippewa Falls High School band program is poised to be in good hands through the end of January. At that point school officials expect the band to be in familiar hands.
The school district hired former St. Croix Falls band director Andrew Merrier to guide the band program through January 20, 2006, the end of the first semester. Merrier will be assisted by Andrei Streizek, a student teacher from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
The Chi-Hi band program is missing two of its directors. Doug Greenhalgh was killed in an October 16 crash of a bus carrying band members home from a state band competition in Whitewater. The program's other director, Brian Collicott, was seriously injured in the crash.
Collicott was released from a Rochester, Minn. hospital last Monday and is expected to return to the band room before the end of the year, said Sue Kern, human resources manager for the Chippewa Falls School District. In the meantime, the district has set up Collicott with a computer and Internet access at his Chippewa Falls home.
“We have a good plan in place and our staff is now set through the end of the semester,” Kern said.
There will be more decisions to be made with the band program come January. The program was a two-person operation and Collicott will surely need help once he returns to teaching on a full-time basis, Kern said.
The district will take a look at the second semester a bit later because it wants Collicott to have input on the program's direction. The school district will be hiring a permanent replacement for the position held by Greenhalgh this spring or during the summer break, Kern said.
Merrier comes to Chippewa Falls after 10 years at St. Croix Falls. He is a Star Prairie native who received his music education degree at UW-River Falls, Kern said. Streizek is a UW-EC student who is graduating in December. He has worked with the marching band the past two summers.
“We are so thrilled to have him because the kids are familiar with him and he knows our program,” Kern said.
The band had been overseen by former Regis band director Patrick Hull the first two full weeks following the bus crash. This week the band has been overseen by University of Minnesota music professor Dr. Jerry Luckhardt, who offered to come to Chi-Hi and help out, Kern said.
Reach Jeffrey Hage at jeff.hage@lee.net.
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