‘Singing principal’ engages students with love of music

The exuberant 61-year-old hasn’t stopped singing yet. When Stafford first landed at the Pacifica School District just south of San Francisco in 2002 as a choral director, he taught music to all the third, fourth and fifth graders. That’s well over 1,000 students a week.

“It was pretty crazy,” he admits. “It was a lot. By the time I was done on Friday afternoon, I was toast. Thank God I was younger then. But, you know, I loved it. I loved that every kid in town knew me.”

Over the years, Stafford has played many roles in Pacifica, including music teacher, bandleader, classroom teacher, principal of Linda Mar and Cabrillo schools and visual and performing arts coordinator. He was dubbed the “singing principal” because he sang to his students every day. It was his secret to spark engagement amid widespread student disaffection.

“It’s a way to get their attention and help them listen to you and know that you are there and that you care,” he said. “The arts are always the first thing cut, and that’s sad because the arts help you build a strong foundation for everything else. Learning to read music early is going to improve reading in class. It’s going to improve the way kids think mathematically in class.”

Stafford retired last year, but his legacy lives on for Pacifica’s students because he remains the district’s unofficial music man, the architect of its ambitious sequential music curriculum. He has always believed that music matters in education.

“We are aesthetic beings by nature,” Stafford said. “And because of that, having a music program allows kids to really explore who they are as individuals, as musicians, as students, as anything they really want to be. The arts in general allow for kids to experiment in becoming who they are.”

Stafford stepped up when opportunity knocked, expanding the district’s ambitious music program, bolstered by new Proposition 28 funding. Despite declining enrollment and the budget woes it triggers, a challenge now facing many districts, Pacifica remains all in on music education.

“Their early commitment to expanding music education is a game-changer for their students,” said Allison Gamlen, visual and performing arts coordinator for the San Mateo County Office of Education. “By offering a sequential, standards-based music program from TK through grade 8, they are ensuring that every child has the opportunity to develop creativity, collaboration and critical thinking skills through music.”

Stafford had to tap into multiple funding streams, combining private philanthropy with Proposition 28 money, to expand the district’s original music program to reach all grades from transitional kindergarten to eight. Finding music teachers amid a chronic staffing shortage was also a key challenge.

“You have to leverage every dollar to make it happen,” he said. “You leverage the other funding you have so you can use Prop. 28 to pay the teachers.”

While some school districts have been hesitant to jump on Proposition 28 arts funding, others have been chomping at the bit to bring the arts back into classrooms after decades of cutbacks. Under Stafford’s watch, Pacifica envisioned a symphony of learning, a program that gradually develops from transitional kindergarten to eight so that students emerge with a profound understanding of the art form.

“Depth of knowledge in music education, focusing on progressing skills over time within a single discipline, has profound benefits for students,” Gamlen said. “By prioritizing depth in music education, Pacifica is giving students more than just exposure. They’re equipping them with a pathway to mastery, self-expression and a lifelong love of the arts.”

Even if students don’t become virtuosos, this deep dive into music will make a lasting impact, experts say. Even students with a tin ear are likely to get the full cognitive boost that music lessons give the growing brain. For example, research suggests that even 45 minutes of arts practice, however rudimentary it may be, notably reduces stress. Skill is no obstacle. You can be drawing blurry stick figures or mangling chopsticks on the piano, and it still helps spark focus and concentration in the classroom.

“Sustained, high-quality arts education enhances academic achievement, social-emotional learning and overall student engagement,” Gamlen said. “Pacifica’s investment in music is an investment in their students’ success -- both in school and beyond.”

When Stafford stepped down last year, he passed the torch to Benjamin Gower, the district’s current visual and performing arts coordinator and band director. They both see music as a tool for building academic skills and emotional resilience in a generation hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. The program starts in transitional kindergarten with the basics of song, rhythm, and dance and builds until students join a concert band and specialize in a woodwind, brass or percussion instrument by eighth grade.

“While the core subject areas teach us the important things we need to understand the world, it is art that helps us learn how to understand ourselves and to be able to live with and make sense of the world around us,” Gower said. “Music is what helps to do that for me and has impacted my life in almost every way I can think of, and it’s that idea that helped inspire me to become a teacher in the first place.”

Immersing in music over time allows students to achieve a feeling of expertise, of charting their own course and following their passion, that can lead to greater knowledge and pride, experts say.

“Music requires students to develop critical thinking skills, organizational skills, understanding the need for teamwork, communication skills, the idea and concept of practicing for improvement,” Gower said, “while also helping boost their self-confidence and helping them to learn how to overcome difficult obstacles and tasks.”

Some children will discover an instrument they will play their whole life. That musical acumen will help shape their identity, buttressing their love of learning.

“Sequential music and arts programs are essential,” said Merryl Goldberg, a veteran music and arts professor at Cal State San Marcos. “Deep learning in any subject teaches not only about the subject, but it also teaches one how to learn, how to be disciplined, how to embrace understanding, and to feel confident in one’s ability to understand, question and wonder.”

Stafford has long seen music as a balm for the soul. He says he has always embraced this philosophy: “If you didn’t show up to help, then why are you here?”

When he realized how much suffering and isolation children had weathered during the pandemic, he began holding “dance parties” during recess at school. He cranked up the music, from disco to K-pop, and invited all comers to bust a move.

“That was my favorite part of being principal,” he said. “I wanted to do something joyous. It was also the best move I ever made to maintain discipline.”

The dance break gave students a chance to let off steam, which helped release frustrations and resolve behavior issues in class, and gave them a chance to bond with their peers. If he ever got too busy and had to cancel a dance party, students inevitably came knocking on his door. They didn’t want to miss out on a chance to socialize.

“They needed it, and they knew they needed it,” said Stafford, “Music is how you build bridges in a community. It brings people together.”

The best part of retirement for Stafford is finally having more time for his own music, such as his revue “Totally Tom.” He says doesn’t miss the herculean administrative headache of running a school, but he does miss the kids.

“I miss them every day.”