Profile: Mark Peabody

<p>Name: Mark Peabody</p><p>Age: 57</p><p>Occupation: Director of the Marin School of the Arts.</p><p>Background: Mark, who was born in San Francisco in 1949, graduated from Santa Rosa High School in 1967. He then attended Santa Rosa Junior College and Sonoma State University, where he obtained a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1973. While at Sonoma State, he met his wife, Connie, and they married in 1973 and moved to Petaluma, where they still live. Connie, an artist, went on to serve as a Spanish teacher at Petaluma Junior High School. They have a daughter, Sarah, 25, who just obtained her teaching credential. </p><p>After graduation, Mark became increasingly drawn to music, and for 16 years played double bass and electric bass professionally for several local orchestras and bands. He received a full scholarship to attend the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, but while there suffered nerve damage in his left hand, causing him to lose control of two fingers and preventing him from practicing.</p><p>Mark then re-entered SSU, where he obtained a teaching credential in 1988, and eventually developed a highly successful music program at San Rafael High School. </p><p>The school is free, but to be admitted students must complete an application form and present an audition or portfolio in front of a panel of art educators. MSA offers classes in creative writing, dance, film and video, instrumental music, musical theater, theater arts, visual arts and vocal music. Students take two classes in these disciplines, as well as all the other typical courses required for graduation. Students won some 60 regional, state and national awards the first two years, and around 80 this year. </p><p>Mark also has consistently performed, playing double bass for the Santa Rosa Symphony for close to 30 years now and for the Jubilee Klezmer Ensemble, a band based in Petaluma that plays traditional Jewish music from eastern Europe, Turkey, Greece and Russia. He also is a composer. </p><p>He has won many prizes, including the SSU Outstanding Music Graduate Award, Mission Rotary Teacher of the Year and the Golden Bell Award.</p><p>How did your interest in music develop? "I played rock 'n' roll with my friends in high school, and while attending college I played in local bars on the weekends. I started off as a rock player, but then got interested in jazz, classical music and eventually world music." </p><p>What drew you to teaching? "As I practiced, I thought about how I had been able to do what I love in music. I felt that I had been given a gift and had a debt to pay to society. Although initially I didn't feel well-suited for teaching, I eventually went back to Sonoma State to get a credential. While there, I got a student-teaching job with eighth-graders at Petaluma Valley Day School. I did a lot of innovative things there, and the program went from being mediocre to great in one year.</p><p>"In 1987-88, I also got assigned to Casa Grande. I had a great experience there, and began to feel that I probably could teach any grade. I ended up getting hired as the music teacher at San Rafael High School. The job appealed to me because the program was in bad shape, and I felt the worst I could do would be to maintain that. During my first year, I felt I had been beaten to a pulp.</p><p>"At the end of it, our jazz band gave a concert. After the performance, everyone in the packed auditorium got up and started cheering, and wouldn't sit down. I realized they really cared, and I ended up teaching there for 12 years. The program doubled in size, I created a lot of interesting classes and we won a lot of regional and state awards."</p><p>Why did you decide to teach at Novato High School? "While I was at San Rafael, school budgets were cut, and art programs were the first to go. So, after building a program, I had to shut parts of it down. I started to feel that there must be a way to sustain quality programs in public schools, and make them available to everyone. </p><p>"From 1996 to 2001, I got very interested in creating a school for the visual and performing arts. I had heard that Novato was very interested in my idea, and people there became very excited about having me. I felt that it was worth giving up my tenure and taking a cut in pay to create something that could help high-level public education."</p><p>How do you obtain funding? "The school district gives us a classroom, teacher and $1,300 each academic year. We need to raise all other funds. The first thing we did was create a non-profit corporation that allows us to request money from foundations. We have fund-raising events, write grants to every foundation we can think of and obtain parent grants to offer after-school programs. And sometimes, we pick up a hammer and paint, and start working on projects ourselves."</p><p>How did you design the Marin School for the Arts? "I had the opportunity to create something from the ground up, so I designed every little piece. We try to put elements into the program that are missing from public education. Our mission was to immediately be successful on every level, and I feel we have been. We work closely with students so they can achieve their dreams, whatever they are."</p><p>How will it develop from here?: "We have some very intriguing possibilities. First, our school needs to grow to a minimum of 300 students. When we get up to 400 to 500, which we hope to have one day, we will start to bottom-out the curriculum. We see the school eventually turning into something that looks more like a university than a high school. </p><p>"Our ultimate goal is to create a model that can be used anywhere in public education, and keep making it better. In my last eight or nine years in education, I would like to see if I can make the school into something that is world-class."</p><p>-- Interview by Dan Johnson</p>