Our Vision
Save Our Kids' Music (SOKM), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation (77-0409136) founded in May 1991, is an all-volunteer organization of parents, teachers and community members whose purpose is to facilitate music education for the youth of Camarillo and to be “Instrumental in Student Success.”
SOKM is proud of its 32 year partnership with the Pleasant Valley School District (PVSD). PVSD administers the programs, hires the music teachers and determines the cirriculum. SOKM raises funds for music teacher salaries, music and supplies; repairs instruments; writes grants for instruments to loan to students; and provides volunteers for performances during the year.
SOKM believes that music and arts education is an integral, necessary part of a well-rounded education and of each child’s preparation for life in the 21st century. Music is one of the few subjects that uses both sides of the brain and nurtures a student’s emotional IQ. The study of music teaches numerous life skills such as self-discipline, team work and performance techniques that enable music students to be the leaders of tomorrow. Students are able to experience the magic and transformative power of music and the arts positioning them to be productive and successful members of society.
In December 2015, a new federal education law, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), was signed. It decreases the emphasis on standardized testing, moves curriculum decisions to the states and local school boards and specifies art and music as essential parts of a “well-rounded education.” The state of CA requires local districts to submit a Local Control Accountability Plan delineating how state education funds should be allocated locally. Additional music opportunities are consistently ranked at the top of the requests from all stakeholders in Camarillo and Ventura County.
The strength of the music programs in Camarillo is evidenced by the number of PVSD students who have successfully auditioned for Ventura County Middle School Honor Band every year and who have successfully auditioned for the CASMEC California All State Honor Groups and SCSBOA All Southern California Honor Groups.
Current PVSD Musical Offerings
3-5: Ukulele
Middle Schools (6-8): Beginning Band, Intermediate Band, Advanced Band, General Music
K-8 Schools: Beginning Band, Mariachi
PVSD Youth Arts Academy: Beginning Strings, Intermediate Strings, Orchestra, Introduction to Guitar, Guitar Ensemble, The Off Beats, Digital Music, Art, and PVSD Chorus
Community Impact
Adolfo Camarillo High School (over 200 music students), Rancho Campana High School and Rio Mesa High School benefit from the high level of preparation provided by PVSD music programs allowing the high school groups to grow and to garner consistently high marks at marching band competitions as well as concert band and jazz band festivals. High school students also have successfully auditioned for CASMEC California All State Honor Groups, SCSBOA All Southern California Honor Groups, PCC Tournament of Roses Honor Band, Ventura County Honor Band, Conejo Valley Youth Orchestras and soloing with the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic.
Music fills the air in Camarillo at concerts given each year by PVSD music students at the schools (spring concerts, lunch time concerts, band tours and graduations) and in the community (Camarillo Christmas Parade, Camarillo Farmer's Market, Camarillo Community Center, Camarillo Health Care Center, Somis Thursday Club and the Camarillo Library). It exposes not only the children of Camarillo to the performing arts but also the entire Camarillo community of 66,000 plus visitors and shoppers.
The Camarillo Community Band, Seniors of Note, Leisure Village Band, Gold Coast Wind Ensemble, Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra, Conejo Valley Concert and Jazz Bands, Thousand Oaks Philharmonic, Westlake Village Symphony, Ventura British Brass Band and Ventura County Concert Band perform mulitple times per year for the community and all the musicians began their musical training in their school music programs.
SOKM Awards
In 2010, SOKM was selected by the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce as the Service Organization of the Year. The Camarillo Council of PTA’s presented Save Our Kids’ Music with an Honorary Service Award in 2009 “in special recognition of outstanding service to children and youth.”
SOKM was also the recipient of the Camarillo Council of PTAs 2013 Golden Oak Service Award (GOSA). This award is given to recognize, as the most prestigious of the Honorary Service Awards, an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to the welfare of children and youth in a school or community.
Economic Benefits of the Arts
In terms of economic benefit, “the Bureau of Economic Analysis, part of the Commerce Department, has quantified art’s impact, finding in a study released December 5, 2013 that 3.2 percent – or $504 billion – of the gross domestic product in 2011 was attributable to arts and culture. ‘The positive value of arts and culture on society has been understood on a human level for millennia,” said Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. “With this new effort, we are now able to quantify the impact of arts and culture on GDP for the very first time.’”
Benefits of Music Education
For our students, there is a significant positive relationship between music instruction and academic performance in reading, spelling, mathematics, listening, verbal abilities, and motor skills. Music teaches discipline, teamwork, a sense of belonging and earned self-esteem, which lead students to become positive and productive adult citizens.
· Through their exposure to music, students will be better positioned for success in the future and have been shown to avoid destructive behaviors. A 2007 Harris Interactive poll showed 88% of people with post-graduate education were involved in music while in school and 83% of people earning $150,000 or more had a music education.
· According to the MENC Journal of Research in Music Education, Winter 2006, music education has proven to increase standardized test scores (22% better in English and 20% better in math) and according to The College Board, Profile of College-Bound Seniors National Report for 2006, music education increased SAT scores (57 points higher on the verbal portion and 43 points higher on the math portion).
· “Two new studies from the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC show that as little as two years of music instruction can change both the structure of the brain’s white matter which carries signals through the brain, and gray matter, which contains most of the brain’s neurons that are active in processing information. Music instruction also boosts engagement of brain networks that are responsible for decision-making and the ability to focus attention and inhibit impulses.” ~ USC News, November 13, 2017
· A new study finds that kids who paint, draw, play music, or read more often feel better about themselves reported Hei Wan Mak and Daisy Fancourt of University College London. Creating art can “validate the uniqueness of an individual, which gives rise to a sense of accomplishment and to feelings of self-worth.” “The arts have been shown to support a sense of social identity” and can “encourage goal-directed behavior, and enhance social resilience.” Finally, their results suggest that “it is not necessary for children to be good at arts” to get the benefit of higher self-esteem: “Engagement, not ability, seems to be the key,” the researchers write. “Arts engagement may well be important in supporting children’s self-esteem—a core marker of positive development,” the researchers conclude. ~ October 10, 2019
· Previous research has shown that music can influence both physical responses and emotions. Those who listen to music show diminished cortisol values and a lower heart rate. Both are key to reducing stress. Moreover, music may suppress negative emotions such as worry, anxiety, restlessness and nervousness. Music may also enhance positive emotions, such as euphoria. All this is enough reason to mobilize the benefits of music in the fight against stress. Music therapy does not merely involve listening to music, but also making music together and singing. ~ University of Amsterdam ~ December 2020.
· For healthier adults, “a study by Dr. Nina Kraus, a professor and neuroscientist at Northwestern published in 2013 by the Journal of Neuroscience, found that childhood music lessons helped sharpen the brain’s response to sound well into adulthood—even when adults no longer played an instrument. ‘This study suggests the importance of music education for children today and for healthy aging decades from now. The fact that musical training in childhood affected the timing of the response to speech in older adults in our study is especially telling because neural timing is the first to go in the aging adult,’ said the study’s lead author Dr. Nina Kraus in a statement.”