Band director not coming
Published 4:00 pm Monday, July 12, 2004
By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
The Board of Education May 27 hired Daniel Chesher to be Dowagiac's next band director.
The Belmont man signed a letter of intent, so when the phone call came June 30 that he decided instead to accept a job with Roseville, it sent officials here scrambling.
Superintendent Larry Crandall was out of the district that Wednesday.
But the message conveyed to Assistant Superintendent Peg Stowers and Union High School Principal Paul Hartsig, after Chesher made two visits here and met his predecessor, Jeff Comfort, was that "the long and short of it is he said he had been offered another position that would be a better fit," Crandall said Friday.
Chesher, a married 1995 Rockford High School graduate, received his bachelor's degree in music education from Central Michigan University in 2000.
The saxophonist taught three years for Grant, north of Grand Rapids.
Crandall said one "silver lining" was that Comfort, hired seven years ago on July 3, had been very helpful and advised the district that if there was a good time for this to happen, the two best times to be looking for a band director are late winter/early spring, when it set about hiring Chesher, or now.
Comfort's high school band director quit unexpectedly at the end of July and a capable replacement was obtained in the first week of August.
He sent his former musicians an e-mail counseling them to "be calm. As 'everything happens for a reason,' everything also works itself out."
The district immediately reposted the position, which "actually generated quite a bit of interest," the superintendent said. The district also went back to the application file for individuals who applied the first time and were likely to be brought back in again. Interviews are tentatively scheduled next week, July 19-20. "It's too early to say what will happen" with band camp next month.
Comfort accepted a position with the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will be teaching orchestra and guitar at two different high schools -- Canyon Springs High School and Mojave High School, located about 10 minutes apart in North Las Vegas. He expects to be placed as a band director in a new high school opening in 2005.