Brunswick schools awarded first Dale Huff Outstanding Music Program Award

The Brunswick School System has been named the 2017 Dale F. Huff Outstanding Music Program by the Dale Huff Memorial Scholarship Fund in partnership with the Maine Music Educators Association.

The Dale F. Huff Outstanding Music Program Award recognizes a performing arts program in Maine that demonstrates a commitment to well-rounded, K-12 performing arts education for all students.

The award was created to continue the legacy of music educator Dale Huff (1938-2016), whose commitment throughout his career to a strong, consistent, K-12 program was heralded as a “best practice” throughout Maine. A well-respected trumpet player, Huff was most revered for his 40-year career as a music educator. His leadership, enthusiasm and pioneering methods not only benefited his students, but were instrumental in shaping school music programs, festivals, and competitions, as well as inspiring other music educators throughout the entire state of Maine.

Huff’s son, Scott Huff, director of the scholarship fund, said, “Brunswick has demonstrated its understanding that proper arts education is valuable to all students and improves the success of those students in all academic areas. The impressive number of performing groups, the large percentage of student body participation, and a curriculum that offers general music for all students, including general music courses for high school students, is proof that Brunswick is doing things right.”

The Dale Huff award was presented to representatives of the Brunswick Music Department and Administration during the President’s Reception and Awards at the Maine Music Educators Centennial Conference on May 19. Members of the music department inlcude Michael Scarpone and Ashley Albert, Brunswick High School; Heidi Anderson and Shari Tarleton, Brunswick Junior High School; Jill Hodgdon and Cynthia Brown, Harriet Beecher Stowe School; and Danielle Murphy, Coffin School.

BHS student ACT Scholar

Margaret Dickinson of Brunswick High School was named Maine ACT student readiness exemplar for the 2016-17 ACT College and Career Readiness Campaign.

Established in 2013, the campaign celebrates achievement and creates awareness around the goal of college and career readiness. The campaign identifies examplars in each of four categories – students, high schools, post-secondary institutions and employers.

Students were selected based on information they provided to ACT when they took the ACT test. ACT State Councils comprised of education and workforce professionals.

Brunswick SMMC student an L.L. Bean scholar 

Moriah Negley, a nursing student from Brunswick who attends Southern Maine Community College, South Portland was awarded a scholarship in honor of Leon A. Gorman at a ceremony held this spring at L.L. Bean’s corporate headquarters in Freeport.

This is the second year of the scholarship, which is equal to a full year of tuition at a Maine community college. It is the first time the award has been expanded from one recipient to seven, one from each of Maine’s community colleges. The scholarship supports Maine community college students who demonstrate strong academic achievement, financial need, and a commitment to community service, a hallmark of the scholarship’s namesake.

From left, Evan Jones, Michael Ryan and Sawyer Wright were among 180 students from Harriet Beecher Stowe, Williams Cone, Pittston, Woolwich, and Chop Point schools who participated in workshops ranging from archaeology to anadromous fish printing when Friends of Merrymeeting Bay held its bi-annual Bay Day at Chop Point School in Woolwich on May 16. 

Accepting the Dale Huff Music Program award on behalf of the Brunswick school system are, from left, educators Ashley Albert, Jill Hodgdon, Danielle Murphy, Heidi Anderson, and Mike Scarpone, and administrator Lisa Cushman.

Dickinson