Teacher Profile Series: Lind-Ritzville Schools' Jennifer York

When graduation comes this June, teachers everywhere will be saying goodbye to a class of students. For many teachers, this means saying goodbye to children they have worked with over the course of the year. But for Lind-Ritzville Schools' band teacher Jennifer York, this means saying goodbye to a senior class full of students she has taught for 13 years.

York teaches band to students in grades 5-12 in both Lind and Ritzville. Before the merger of the schools, she taught students in K-12. This year's senior class was the final kindergarten class that York taught before the change.

"It's like raising your own kids," York said. "It's kind of a joke here but it's true that everyone knows that Mrs. York is going to cry at the Spring Concert every year because I have to say goodbye to my kids."

York has been teaching in Ritzville for 19 years. She was born in Minnesota before her family moved to Oregon during her first year of high school. She attended Lake Ridge High School in Lake Oswego, Oregon, a Portland suburb.

By then, York already knew she wanted to be a teacher. She didn't yet know, however, that music was her calling. This would happen at Lake Ridge High School.

"I was in band and playing every ensemble that I could be in," York said, "One day, my band director asked me to step on the podium and take over while he went to work with another section. It was when I first stepped on that podium back in 10th grade, a long time ago, that I felt how amazing it was and I knew that's what I wanted to do."

York said music had always been an important part of her life, so she felt it made sense that she would pursue teaching it to the next generation. When asked what she had planned on teaching before deciding on music, she was unsure.

"I have no idea," York said. "If I had not found music, I have no idea where my life would have taken me. That is how important it has been in my life. I think music helped me graduate high school. I was not an 'A' student. I wasn't an athlete. Music is what brought me to school everyday. And my bandmates and my friends who were with me in my music world, they are what kept me going to get to school everyday."

She says those people in her music world became more than friends to her.

"I think being in a band or a chrior--or any kind of performing ensemble--gives you an instant family. We work together so many hours to create beautiful music and you can't help but feel connected to those people."

After graduating high school, York attended Southern Oregon University to earn her bachelor's degree in music education and her master's degree in education. She did her student teaching at a large middle school in Medford. Leading a large middle school band was appealing to her, however, when it was time to start looking for jobs, she knew she had to apply everywhere.

When she got the job in Ritzville, she was excited.

"I had a handful of interviews coming out of the masters program and I got offered the job here," York said. "I took it thinking I would start off in a small school to get my feet wet and then move on to a big town with a big middle school band."

But soon, she discovered she had found her home. She met her husband, Ken York, here. Ritzville is where she and her husband wanted to raise their family. York has a two-year-old son, Elliott; a 10-year-old son, Owen; a 23-year-old stepdaughter, Randi, and a 25-year old stepdaughter, Kaiyley.

And while the bands are smaller in a city like Ritzville, she had found several things she likes about teaching at a small school, such as the many opportunities students have to participate in a large number of programs. She likes the wide range of students who pass through her bands.

"In my high school band here, I have students who are in FFA," York said. "I have students who are athletes. I have the captain of the football team and the captain of the basketball team in my band. I have students who work on cars and students who have after-school jobs and everything in between. But it's music that brings us all together. I love that."

York says keeping the band program strong is important to her because she wants to provide the same home she experienced in high school to students who need it today.

"I feel it's really important that every kid finds a home at school," York said. "Whether it's sports, FFA, band, art, drama or chess club, whatever it is, they have to have a place to call home at school. And for some of these kids, though they may not know it yet in fifth grade, I might be their home."

Students in the LRS co-op start taking band class in fifth grade. In Ritzville, younger students have music classes starting in kindergarten. York, while admitting her daily schedule is fully loaded, says she does sometimes miss teaching those early music classes.

"It was a lot of fun to teach kindergarten through fourth grade," York said. "It was my chance to teach them a lot of fundamentals and get them ready for band. I knew exactly what I wanted them to do before they got to fifth grade band ... But at the same time, band is my favorite thing to teach. That is what I went to college for."

While York always knew she wanted to teach, she says she also had a desire to play music herself. She has fed that hunger by performing with the Coeur d'Alene Symphony for 15 years. She is currently taking a break from the symphony after having her youngest son two years ago.

As much as she likes performing, York says she has no regrets spending her life as a teacher first.

"In the almost 20 years I have been here, I have had three or four students go into music education," York said. "But my main goal is not to get everyone to become a music teacher. My main goal is to teach them the life-long love of music. It's to get them to appreciate their culture and their world around them. I want them to have an escape when times get tough and they need a break. They can always turn to their music."

York says her favorite part of teaching so many grades may be seeing young people turn into adults, even though that makes the goodbyes at the end even harder.

"With this year's senior class, I have spent an hour a day with them for nine months a year for [13] years," York said. "You watch them go through their hardest years. You watch them go through breakups and relationships and fights with their parents and siblings. You also see them get their first jobs at the pool and interview and get accepted to universities. The best thing is when they come back and tell you what's going on."