North Hills School Board opens every meeting with a performance

North Hills School Board has kept up a unique tradition for more than 20 years.

Before each voting meeting, the board extends an invitation to a student performance group to attend the meeting and give the audience a sample of what they have been working on. Groups from all six schools in the district have been included in the tradition.

“I honestly don’t know when it started,” said Lori Rieger, North Hills School Board secretary. “I have been the board secretary since 2013. We’ve been doing it before me. It has to be at least 20 years.”

Rieger had been with the district for 26 years. She said that for as long as she can remember, she and the school board secretaries before her would reach out to the district’s music curriculum coordinator over the summer, and request a list of performance dates during the school year.

A week or two before each recital, opening night or competition, students a part of the group are invited to give the school board and meeting attendees a sneak peek of the full performance to come.

“We’ve always supported the arts in our district,” Rieger said. “We’re very proud of our music department.”

The school offers a variety of music groups and classes including band, orchestra and chorus at the elementary, middle and high school levels. Once students reach middle school, they can audition for the drama club and participate in a musical. Before the musical, students will attend the meeting dressed in full costume and perform a couple of songs from the show.

“It’s just one of the brightest spots of our board meetings – at least for me,” Rieger said. “I love it because we’ll get the seventh-grade band, and they’ll be just learning. Then we’ll get them as seniors and the advancement of their musical abilities is just incredible.”

Every performance group is included in the tradition, including a middle school guitar club that began 15 years ago when music teacher Heidi Kohne noticed her students were feeling a little lost. She decided to go to the principal and ask for a couple of guitars. She began teaching the students who would visit her classroom in the morning and it became so popular that it’s now a class offered in the middle school curriculum. They normally perform for the board at the end of the school year.

“It makes my heart really happy to see the kids flourish and enjoy what they’re learning,” Rieger said.