A blue note: School jazz saved, but mock trial could fold in Seattle schools

To help save a beloved middle school jazz program, Seattle Public Schools turned to one of its Grammy Award-winning former students for help. 

SPS contacted Quincy Jones, a Garfield High School graduate and legendary music producer, for a donation after dozens of Washington Middle School students, parents and educators asked the district to save the jazz band from budget cuts. Jones, a 28-time Grammy winner, gave the district $50,000.

“Me and my friend, when we got the news, we basically started jumping up and down and screaming, we were so excited,” said Owen Heffter, an incoming seventh-grader at Washington Middle. 

The one-time donation will carry the jazz program through at least one more school year, but there’s hope for the future. 

The Nesholm Family Foundation has offered help with money for later school years, an SPS spokesperson said. The Seattle foundation awards grants in health and human services, education and the performing arts. 

“Our goal is to support sustainable ideas and solutions that invest in our SPS arts programs long term,” the SPS spokesperson said in an email. 

Budget cuts are forcing school district administrators to make hard decisions about which classes stay and go. While the jazz band found benefactors, Franklin High School’s mock trial class has not. The class is being cut next year. 

The decisions came as SPS was facing a $131 million budget deficit for the upcoming school year, and although the majority of cuts came out of the central office, some programs and classes couldn’t be spared. It’s resulted in dozens of students, parents, and educators gathering at school board meetings, pleading to save their classes. 

The district cut funding for a Washington Middle School music teacher, ending jazz band. Washington Middle is a feeder school for Garfield, and its jazz program allowed students to develop the music chops they needed to land a spot on Garfield’s nationally renowned jazz program. Jones, Jimi Hendrix and Ernestine Anderson all played in Garfield’s jazz band.

Many worried that losing the middle school jazz band would affect Garfield’s program, but educators said the biggest loss would be the effect on the students. 

Heffter, who plays the saxophone and drums, said music class was their favorite part of the day “and one of the only reasons I was excited to go to school.”

Adults forget how much of an effect music has on people, whether as a profession or for fun, said Jo Chick, an incoming seventh-grader at Washington Middle. Chick said it creates for students a community that’s irreplaceable. 

“It does so much more than just teaching you how to play an instrument,” the drummer said. 

Although jazz class is here to stay, big changes are coming at Washington Middle. The school is breaking its partnership with the Technology Access Foundation, or TAF, a technology program aimed at improving academic outcomes for students of color. The program — focused on teaching science, technology, engineering and math — required eight more staffers than the district could afford.

Mock trial loses funding

At Franklin High School, the school’s mock trial class allowed students to participate in a simulated court trial. They acted as witnesses, cross-examined witnesses, presented arguments and prepared statements. Students must improvise because they don’t know what arguments the other team will present, said Peter Heineccius, one of Franklin’s mock trial coaches and an alumnus of the mock trial team. 

Every year a superior court judge comes up with a case for students to try and defend, Heineccius said. Students compete against other schools in the state and, if they make it to the national competition, with schools across the country. They are scored by a jury made up of attorneys and judges.

The mock trial team won national championships in 2000 and 2018. In 2001 and 2019 the team placed third in the nation. This year the mock trial team placed third in the state. 

“So many people want to go to Franklin because of mock trial,” said Pauline Adonis, who just graduated from Franklin in June and was a mock trial team captain. “The mock trial program is probably one of the most rigorous classes I’ve ever taken — more than AP classes or the UW lit class I took last year.”

Adonis, who’s been in mock trial since she was a sophomore, said if the class isn’t saved, students will miss out on a community and a style of learning unlike any other class she’s taken. Students spend months practicing, including many nights at the King County Superior Court courthouse. 

“The fact that we have to fight for it (mock trial class) every single year is not a surprise to me, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a good thing,” Adonis said. “We shouldn’t have to fight for something so many people are a part of.”

Mock trial was a class at Franklin until 2021-22, when it was turned into an after-school club, despite students’ best efforts to save it. “It was devastating for the program,” Heineccius said. That all changed the following school year, he said, when the class was restored.

Since 2010, the team had not placed below sixth in the state, Heineccius said, and when it turned into a student-ran club the team placed 20th out of 24. “It’s an easy way to gauge the health of the program,” he said. 

SPS has said it’s looking for ways to keep the program going. “Looking ahead to next year and beyond, our efforts will be focused on supporting Franklin’s leadership in finding sustainable solutions for the mock trial program,” SPS said in an emailed statement.

Similar to the Washington Middle students who spoke about being in the jazz band, Franklin students talked about how the mock trial class gave them a sense of belonging at school. Franklin students said the class is an outlet and teaches them a variety of subjects: theater, public speaking, how to frame an argument, how to connect with people, and how court trials and the justice system work. 

Running the mock trial program as an after-school club is an equity problem, Heineccius said — some students need to care for siblings after school, or have other obligations. Having a class during school hours is “the only way to maintain a highly competitive program and have it accessible to as many students as possible.”