Prop 28, Year Two – Where Are We?
Clinician(s): Michael Stone, Dan Bryan, & Katie Gilchrist
Join Mike Stone, Dan Bryan, and a panel of local music leaders to discuss Prop 28 as it enters its second year of implementation. The panel will discuss successes and struggles in their districts, and how they have been able to use Prop 28 funds to move arts programs forward in their communities. Updates to the law will be discussed, as well as a Q&A to follow.
Michael D. Stone earned the B.A. in Music Education/Performance and the M. Ed. from University of California, Los Angeles. Mr. Stone serves as the Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator for the Bakersfield City School District. As the arts administrator for the district, he oversees arts programs at 33 elementary schools, 6 middle schools, and 4 junior high schools. Prior to assuming this position, Mr. Stone served for over 14 years as instrumental music teacher at Chipman Junior High School, also in the Bakersfield City School District.
Chipman bands and orchestras consistently earned Unanimous Superior Ratings at California Music Educators Association (CMEA) ratings festivals during his tenure. Chipman ensembles performed at the state conferences of CMEA and California Band Directors Association. Mr. Stone was featured in the January 1999 issue of The Instrumentalist Magazine, and has written several articles for the magazine since that time. During the summer of 1998, he was awarded the prestigious “Fellowship in Music Education” at Northwestern University. In March of 2009, Mr. Stone served as an Online Mentor for the Music Educators National Conference National Council of Supervisors of Music Education. In 2016, Mr. Stone authored a blog post entitled “Mentoring New Music Educators for Lifelong Success in the Profession” for the National Association for Music Education, or NAfME.
Under his leadership, Bakersfield City School District was named a Best Communities for Music Education Award Winner 2013-2023 by the National Association of Music Merchants. The District’s Music In Our Schools Week instrumental music recruitment program received a 2014 Golden Bell Award of the California School Boards Association, as did the District’s Choir Standards Festival in 2019. In October of 2015, Mr. Stone was recognized by the Arts Council of Kern as its Outstanding Arts Educator at its Accomplishments Awards Gala.
Mr. Stone is a Past President of CMEA, CBDA, CMEA Central Section, Kern County Music Educators Association, and President-Elect of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Western Division. He recently concluded his term as the Chair of the NAfME Council of Music Program Leaders, and is currently a Liaison to the National Executive Board. He served as the Music Supervisors Representative on the CMEA State Council from 2018-2020, and was Western Division Representative on the NAfME Council of Music Program leaders from 2016-2019. Mr. Stone has also served in an adjunct capacity at California State University, Bakersfield, teaching instrumental music methods to undergraduates. He holds active memberships in many professional organizations, including NAfME, CBDA, CMEA, KCMEA, and Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association and was inducted into the American School Band Directors Association in 2001. Mr. Stone is a euphoniumist and trombonist, and is a founding member of the Bakersfield Winds, a symphonic wind ensemble.
Active as an adjudicator, guest conductor, and strategic planning facilitator and writer. Mr. Stone has conducted honor bands and orchestras and clinics throughout California, as well as in Arkansas, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, and Utah. Recent guest conducting engagements include the 2021 Sonoma County Junior High School Honor Band. In December of 2021, he presented at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago. Mr. Stone has served for many years as a guest conductor at the Cazadero Performing Arts Camp in California’s Sonoma County, and will returned this summer conducting the Middle School Session B Orchestra.
“The are no problems, only solutions!”
Educator/composer/adjudicator Dan Bryan is Chair of Secondary Music for Modesto City Schools and Director of Instrumental Music at Joseph Gregori High School in Modesto, California. He serves on the Boards for the Central Valley Guard and Percussion Circuit, Stanislaus County Music Educators Association, and California Band Director’s Association. He acts as an adjudicator and clinician for several schools and organizations around the country, including Western Band Association and Drum Corps International.
He is an eight time Winter Guard International World Championship Medal winner (and four-time WGI Finalist) as an instructor/composer, and his music and instructional book are published internationally through Key Poulan Music, Shawn Glyde Music, GPG Publications, and Extreme Brass and Percussion.
His band programs at both Los Banos High School (WGI World Championship Finalist) and Grace M. Davis High School (3-time WBA State Finalist) have been regionally and nationally recognized for their excellence. They have been honored to participate in performances with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Dan’s other instructional highlights include: Fred C. Beyer High School (1990 –1993), Clovis West High School (1994), CSU Fresno Marching Band (1994 – 1998), Sacramento Freelancers Winter Drumline (1997 – 2000; WGI World Champion,1998), Modesto High School Percussion Ensemble (1998 – 2003, WGI Open Class Medalist 2001 – 2003), Modesto Junior College (2006 – 2009), and eNVision Percussion Theater (WGI “A” Class finalist, 2009 – 2012, WGI Fan Favorite winner, 2011 and 2012).
He is a graduate of Modesto Junior College and CSU Fresno, where he performed as principal and co-principal percussionist in the wind and percussion ensembles. He is a former member of DCI Finalist (1989, 1992) Sacramento Freelancers, where he performed in both the horn line and front ensemble. His teachers include Don Silva, Tad Carpenter, Carol Carpenter, Ralph Hardimon, Dr. Matt Darling, Scott Ney, and Dr. Gary P. Gilroy.
He has served as an advisor/instructor for Gottschalk’s Music, and the Italian National Champion and Drum Corps Europe Finalist “Millennium Drum and Bugle Corps” of Milan, Italy. Dan was honored to be a composer for the 2008 Olympic Mass Band. He continues to perform as a freelance percussionist throughout Northern California.
Dan is co-owner (with his wife, Lindsay) of Pitopia Percussion, and is a teacher/endorser for Innovative Percussion.
Katie Gilchrist is currently in her 7th year of teaching, and is an instrumental music teacher at Palo Alto High School and Greene Middle School in the Palo Alto Unified School District. She previously taught in the Santa Clara Unified School District and the East Side Union High School District. She holds a Master’s degree in Music Education from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education with an emphasis in saxophone from San Jose State University.
In 2024, Katie was awarded the Gilbert T. Freitas outstanding band educator award by CMEA Bay Section. In that same year, she was also awarded the 2023-2024 Outstanding Teacher Award by the Peterson Middle School PTSA.
Katie serves as the California All-State Honor Ensemble coordinator, and is also the secretary for the Santa Clara County Band Directors Association. She has also served on the CMEA Bay Section board, CMEA State Collegiate Council, and the California Band Directors Association board.
Katie is also very involved with the marching arts in the San Francisco Bay Area. She marched mellophone in the Vanguard organization. She has worked as a visual and music staff member for numerous high schools in the South Bay as well as a visual tech for the Vanguard Cadets. She currently works on the staff of the Monta Vista High School marching band.
Session Handouts