Sound Engineering and Studio 2501

Let There be Rock

We opened up the first high school Sound Engineering program with a fully functional state-of-the-art recording studio (Studio 2501) in Illinois during the 2013-2014 school year. Studio 2501 was opened in a 7,000-plus square foot facility that includes a live room, mixing room, vocal booth, rehearsal spaces, and a second floor balcony with 30 Pro Tools workstations for students to fully edit projects.

Studio 2501 is housed in what was originally an aviation room that was established in the 1930’s and 1940’s where students built airplanes (a plane was actually built in the Aviation room for the World War II war effort). The aviation room was later converted into an auto shop classroom in the 1960s. The school used to have four auto shops, but by 1999, there was only one remaining functional auto shop with dwindling student enrollment. By 2011, enrollment was less than two sections. Sadly, the program was eventually closed. 

Paleta Musical

I envisioned repurposing the large, empty space as a multiuse music- and physics-based sound engineering program, guitar classroom studio, and a music therapy course for students with special needs. We had a guitar program that, under previous leadership, was not allowed to add additional sections, although the demand existed for creating additional course levels and sections. We were fortunate to hire a guitar teacher to assist with leading the revisioned program and innovation space who was visionary and excited about the prospect of music becoming a major part of our STEAM program. 

In 2012, I began collaborating and partnering with our guitar teacher, Joe Sweet, (whom we eventually promoted to department chair) about expanding guitar and eventually creating a sound engineering program. We could not create such a program if there was no interest or demand, so we began exploring the possibilities and demand for expanding and creating sound engineering. I had previously created a principal’s Student Advisory Board (SAB) at every grade level and they were a fantastic resource for working with every homeroom in the school to learn student perspectives concerning a variety of “happenings” around the school. The SAB provided feedback and survey data for each of the new programs we were developing and the repurposing of innovative spaces. There was genuine excitement about the prospect of creating a sound engineering program and a recording studio for students. 

Spanish Castle Magic

We were able to hire a second guitar teacher, Matt Hudson, who had some background with recording and was very excited about developing a sound engineering program. We were also fortunate, as he was both a gifted guitarist and understood the need to ensure sound engineering was a class for musicians and non-musicians alike. 

I wanted the course to cover recording, producing, sound engineering, physics, and applications of sound outside of music production (voice over, sound effects, editing, etc.). I wanted to develop curricula for a diverse body of sound engineering learners. I was fortunate with both teacher leaders because I did not need to explain why we needed the program to be highly inclusive, as they held the same beliefs.

As a team, we were intrinsically motivated to develop and implement a program that was representational of our diverse student body. In addition, we were excited to develop curriculum for sound engineering and collaborated on designing and promoting an adaptive music course for special education music therapy. 

Art and Music Festival

Matt was charged with leading the curricular team for developing the course outline, learning units, and the curricular long plan. Each time I received curriculum design proposals, I would review and push the curriculum design team further by emphasizing, “We can do more than that.” It became a somewhat predictable (and humorous) pattern but we understood one another and the team was always open to going back to the drawing board to imagine further in each subsequent proposal. 




The end result was a curriculum that included an authentic, inclusive partnership with external business partners, parent groups, staff, students, and administration. We did not desire a club nor did we simply want a co-curricular program. The intent was to establish my original vision for a state-of-the-art, multipurpose curricular learning space for all students to experience innovative, interdisciplinary sound engineering teaching and learning. 

El Viejo Guitarrista

As an administration, we embraced and employed distributive leadership to oversee building logistics with respect to the studio’s design and for creating a one-of-a-kind curricular program. Matt Hudson and Joe Sweet began working with external stakeholders for input. As the vision grew to fruition, the team knew we were developing something special. When we met with stakeholders, we would share that both the curriculum and the learning space was going to be a one-of-a-kind, university-level, sound engineering class for high school students.

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As a result of vision, budget planning, fund-raising with internal and external partners, and the incredible logistical and curricular planning by the administrative-teacher team, Studio 2501 and Sound Engineering were established as the district and state’s only high school Sound Engineering and Recording Studio offering. 

We also regularly partnered with sending and external schools for articulation. The first such partnership was with Oriole Park Elementary School in Chicago, who visited for a day and later sent a “thank you” song to the sound engineering team in the form of a recorded performance! We also regularly engaged in fundraising opportunities to support programming, such as “Lane-A-Palooza” and “Art and Music Festivals” for community.

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Different Strings

Studio 2501, sound engineering, expanded guitar course offerings, and special education music therapy were established and nurtured through collaborative partnerships via servant leadership and distributive leadership. It was through shared leadership that we were able to enlist parental, student, and stakeholder input and supports to establish this innovative and creative learning space for curricular delivery.    

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