Elkhorn North choirs and concert band rehearse together during TA on December 17th. They are rehearsing to perform a combined piece, “The Promise of Living”, at their annual winter concert. Photo by Amina Teri.

On November 11, 2024, parents of music students spoke at an Elkhorn Public Schools school board meeting to request assistant directors for Elkhorn North’s growing music department, worried that talented directors will not stay at ENHS due to the workload.  

“As it is currently allocated, personnel for the instrumental music program at ENHS is not equitable, sustainable, or reasonable for one person to have to manage, and an assistant director dedicated to our school is the only solution to this issue,” one Elkhorn North band parent said, who has chosen to remain anonymous. 

Remarks by parents did not appear in the official minutes. 

In mid-November, Vocal Music Director Casey Allen and Instrumental Music Director Ben Petrmichl received news that their requests for assistant directors for the 2025-2026 school year had been denied. 

Currently, 137 students are enrolled in choir and 101 are enrolled in band. Next year, the programs are expected to enroll 210 and 120 students respectively. This continuous upward trend in enrollment is not commensurate with the amount of assistance that is being provided to directors. 

“I think that our director can’t put everything that she wants to put into our groups because she’s spread so thin,” senior choir student Maddy Tillman said. “We’re maybe not reaching our fullest potential because there’s so many things that she has to worry about.” 

Allen and Petrmichl manage a plethora of activities outside of their curricular ensembles. Combined, the two directors oversee Varsity and JV show choir, Varsity and JV show choir bands, five barbershop quartets, a vocal jazz ensemble, Varsity and JV jazz bands, marching band, pep bands, fall musical, and pit orchestra, in addition to individual student coaching. The two average 10-30 hours of extracurricular commitments per week.

“We have an intense workload and an immense amount of students involved in our programs,” Petrmichl said. “It becomes a lot to try to juggle all that all at once.” 

It has become increasingly evident that the music department is growing too rapidly for only one director per program. Students involved in choir or band extracurriculars can testify to the time commitment, but directors are at rehearsals before students arrive and stay until after students leave. 

Other programs of our size have assistant directors to lessen the workload and provide more personalized instruction. Elkhorn South High School has assistant directors for both band and choir, while being very similar in numbers to ENHS. Our marching bands had the same number of students this year, and the choir departments will be nearly the exact same size next year.

“It’s too much for one person, and the amount of classes I’m managing but also all the extracurricular work that I do outside of school is really demanding of me and my time, my body, and my mind,” Allen said. “So I thought that it would be best for my mental health and also my physical being and our program to have another person in here.” 

Of course, growing numbers in the program is a good thing. Involvement in music extracurriculars is heavily encouraged in the music department, ensuring each student has opportunities to learn and perform in different styles. However, more students are more work. 

“When you add kids to the musical, that’s a lot of fun for those kids, and we love having a big cast, but it adds hours of work getting people staged, where everyone can be featured in the show, and then hours of work planning on the director’s behalf,” Allen said. “It adds a lot of things to my to-do list. It doesn’t stay the same.” 

Not only is it a lot to ask of directors, but students feel the weight of a lack of adult leadership. Large ensembles already require strong student leadership to help when directors can’t, but their responsibilities are about to increase significantly.

The consequences of lacking an assistant director are not limited to just stress and excess responsibility. In such large groups, students may feel forgotten or neglected because directors lack the bandwidth to divert their attention to the needs of an individual student. Section leaders and other student leaders are there to help, but they cannot replace the direction of an experienced adult.

“It can be much more of a challenge to make sure that everyone’s on the same track and make sure that everyone is succeeding and on the same level,” Petrmichl said. “That definitely has to allow me to rely more on the student leadership, and making sure that they’re trained and can help run the ship smoothly when I’m the only one here.” 

Elkhorn North is failing its music directors and students, significantly affecting morale at a time when our success potential is the highest it’s ever been. Assistant directors would allow the music department to flourish, and not put a ceiling on the exponential growth that is bound to continue. 

“All that I said is very valid and very important, we spend a lot of time here, and it really affects what we do outside of our job,” Petrmichl said. “We have a lot on our plate here, and it takes a toll in a lot of ways.”