Ribbon cutting marks opening of music center at North Sanpete High
By Doug Lowe
Staff writer
12-12-2019
MT. PLEASANT—Joyful spirits and sounds soared up to, and even beyond, the high ceiling incorporated into the newly constructed music center, at North Sanpete High School, during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday Dec. 3.
To welcome visiting dignitaries, a bevy of beaming students, directed by their instructor, Tim Kidder, not only played their instruments, but also, at the event’s end, sang a touching choral arrangement a cappella.
When asked about what he liked about the high school’s new music center, Tim Kidder, replied enthusiastically replied “everything!” When pressed to name just one thing, Kidder pointed out the big central room, with its spacious floor space and high ceilings, that now made it possible to bring together as many as 120 students “to sing or play their instruments as loudly as they can” without any danger of anyone’s hearing being damaged.
School District Superintendent Sam Ray says that a factor behind the new music center’s high ceiling was real concern that the old music room, with its smaller square footage and lower ceiling, could be damaging the ears of Kidder and his students. “When I got here and saw the poor conditions that Mr. Kidder and his music students were in,” Ray says, “having a space that could accommodate only a third or half of his combined band and choir members, I put improving their situation on my list of things I wanted to accomplish.”
According to Ray, after learning that Kidder was beginning to have some hearing problems, an acoustic engineer was brought in to study the existing music room. The engineer determined that the existing music room’s small floor space, nearby walls and low ceiling could indeed result in sound waves bouncing around in ways damaging to the human ear.
When asked about the board’s decision to fund construct a bigger and better music room, Board President, Greg Bailey, recalled that it took “about a year” for the board to finally appropriate $1.3 million for construction that would “meet two pressing needs: a new music center at the high school and new classrooms at Spring City’s elementary school to replace old, almost worn-out mobile units.” According to Bailey, the information about Mr. Kidder’s hearing problems and concerns for student well-being was definitely a factor in the board’s decision to move forward.
After cutting the ribbon, Mr. Kidder immediately turned and shook the hand of superintendent Ray, followed by the hands of the four board members present: Stacey Goble, Shal Marie Morley, Richard Brotherson and Jeremy Madsen.
In an interview following the event, the school’s Principal Nan Ault expressed “great appreciation to Dr. Ray and the board for the magnitude of what they have made possible. The need that was so big and has now been met. And, all the credit for it goes to the superintendent, the board and Mr. Kidder.”
Over some ten years as the high school’s music instructor, Kidder has built an outstanding program, attracting so many more instrumental and vocal music students, that an outstanding new facility needed to be built to accommodate the increased student interest and allow for even further growth in the future.
