Middle School Music Director Stephen Bloom is hoping the School Committee will approve a three-day field trip to Maryland and Washington D.C. for the school’s Pioneer singing group.
The Pioneer singers got back into singing locally last year after being forced to stop during the pandemic. The group recently performed at King‘s Chapel in Boston, Hammond Castle in Gloucester, and Canobie Lake Park, but Bloom presented plans for a larger, traveling performance to the School Committee last week.
“We’ve been making these performance tours since the year 2000 and it’s been a highlight of the school year making trips to other cities,” Bloom said during a presentation before at a recent School Committee meeting. “These tours combine traditional sightseeing and educational opportunities found under your typical student tours, with performances and professional venues.”
Since Bloom began hosting these trips 20 years ago, he’s worked with Capital Tours in Haverhill to handle the sight seeing, transportation and hotels, while he organizes the performances. He plans to use Capital Tours again this year, as he said other music tour companies that he’s looked into charge “substantially more money for equal or fewer performance opportunities” for a similar type of tour.
The itinerary for this extended day field trip includes educational activities, like the national aquarium in Baltimore, as well as music activities like a music-focused tour of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.
“I am very excited about the opportunity to have our students interact with Navy musicians,” Bloom said. “These are the musicians who are literally the best at what they do.”
This would be the group’s first trip to Annapolis.
The tour also includes a stop at Fort McHenry and since the group is known for their rendition of the national anthem, Bloom said they will perform it there.
Their main performance venue, however, will be at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Annapolis where they will be performing in both the service as well as their own concert.
“The choice of venue is no coincidence. The service would be led by Rev. Lauren Bloom, my sister, who was just ordained this past spring,” Bloom said. “We’d also be collaborating with their music director.”
Bloom said that like always, if students or parents feel uncomfortable performing in a church then they don’t have to and it won’t be held against them.
Parents can register for this field trip with Capital Tours and pay them directly online using a credit or debit card or PayPal. Bloom said families are able to make as many or few payments as they wish.
One of the top priorities of this trip, Bloom said, is security. In past trips, Bloom said the typical student to adult ratio has ranged from two to one or 1.5 to one.
Students are assigned to groups with parent chaperones who take verbal attendance at every stop on the trip, usually around eight times a day.
Capital Tours also hires a security guard for each floor of the hotel that students are on.
Bloom and Capital Tours keep a list of student’s and parent’s hotel rooms and check on the students at bedtime.
To lessen the cost for families, Bloom also plans to organize fundraisers, with help from the parents, which will consist of restaurant nights and advertisements in the spring concert program.
School Committee Chair Rich Sjoberg said that while the committee still needs to review Bloom’s plan and vote on it at the next meeting, he thinks that Bloom will be able to proceed to the next step of this process.
“I would just say for the amount of years that I’ve been sitting here listening to you come in and provide the details of each trip that you’ve requested, they’ve always been concise, succinct,” Sjoberg said.
Committee member Jamie Hayman agreed, saying that these trips have always been so well run and Capital Tours does a great job.
“Just remind people that we’re kind of paying it forward right now,” Hayman said. “We’re getting back into field trips and how our students behave on these field trips will enable them for the future.”
The School Committee will vote on this extended field studies proposal on Nov. 29.
“It’s one thing to take a group of kids sightseeing, but it’s a far more memorable thing to include a performance,” Bloom said. “It combines both elements and it’s a special opportunity for the kids to showcase their talents.”
