Music supervisor outlines participation counts, ensembles and instrument availability limits

Amy Holloman, LPS supervisor of music education, reviewed music participation data for middle and high schools, described district ensembles and explained operational limits on summer instrument loaning.

Holloman distinguished "unique" students (individual students counted once) from "total" counts (students counted in multiple ensembles). She said the total music enrollment figure was reported as 10,155 but noted the number has data caveats because of course coding; unique student counts were 6,060 and 1,050 students were involved in multiple groups. For high schools she reported 2,608 unique students and 8,008 total students, and she highlighted district ensembles including the Lincoln Youth Symphony and a new West African music ensemble and a planned "Legacy of Soul" vocal ensemble to increase participation by students of color.

On instrument access, Holloman said district instruments must be returned at year end for inventory, chemical cleaning and repair work; local repair shops are overwhelmed during the summer turnaround, which constrains the district’s ability to re‑loan instruments immediately. “One of the obstacles that we run into is all of our LPS instruments have to come in. They have to be inventoried. They have to be cleaned,” Holloman said. She described teacher arrangements that can provide exceptions when cleaned instruments are available.

Board members asked for clearer disaggregation and for ways to encourage greater participation; Holloman and other presenters said recruiting is year‑round and the district uses targeted outreach for new ensembles.