What makes District 219 the best fine arts departments in the nation? Do the awards and accolades and being recognized nationally as one of the best really say anything about how good the department is when there are tons and tons of public high schools in the United States?
“I strive to give my students the best education that they can get and I do set a bar very high because I want them to be as good as they can be. I’m not looking to be nationally recognized because I don’t get anything out of it, I’ m looking for my students to get the best experience they can possibly get,” said Daniel Gregerman the Choir director for 23 years at Niles North.
Gregerman and Tim Ortmann have been two of the faculty members who have been there for over 20 years and helped them change or lead it on its course to where it’s at now.
Gregerman had multiple reasons on why he thinks there’s is one of the best. “We are surrounded by incredible faculty, people who are visionary in their field that understand what it is to push the limit and raise the bar for students,” said Gregerman. “We are blessed to have students that want to learn and get to the next level.”
He went on to say, “The community that values, supports, and encourages the arts and also an administration that has valued and supported the arts both verbally and monetarily.”
Ortmann said, “I think there is a really strong tradition of quality that feeds into the status of fine arts at Niles North. For decades the community has wanted and expected the fine arts to be high quality.”
To add to that sentiment Gregerman said, “So no matter where we go, what we do, we’re always looked upon as being excellent at what we do.”
In 1997 Niles North won an award from the Kennedy Center and the National School Board Association. The only way for them to even have a chance to win it was because of Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, who wanted them to apply for the award. She knew who they were and what they stood for and had them fill out the application in order to be nominated.
“The application doesn’t mean anything unless you have something to back it up with,” said Gregermann. “The backing up where its band, choir, orchestra, dance, theater and visual are consistently going to festivals and competitions and having guest artists come in here, people always critiquing us and comparing us and constantly telling us we’re one of the best that they have ever seen.”
Gregerman always wanted to be a music teacher to high school kids ever since he was in high school but was not sure what type of music. For his master’s degree he specialized in coral conducting and jazz studies that brought him to Niles North, all the way from Boston.
Gregerman in addition to being the choir director for 23 years teaches piano, music theory, special education fine arts classes, and can teach band as well at Niles North high school. When he got to Niles North there were 32 people in choir and most of the students didn’t know how to read music and the rest of the programs were very similar and just one art teacher where there is three now.
Also the theater was doing well but a new person came when he arrived and he said that the person took it the next level. Another orchestra director came the same year as Gregermann and built the orchestra program, and guitar program.
The surprising thing was he said that the band program was the best part of the fine arts department back then and that everyone thing else caught up to it.
“The teachers are so good and the district spends lots of money on us and the kids enjoy it,” said Debbie Nietlich, the executive assistant of the fine arts department.
“It’s the staff that thinks so creatively and is so passionate for what they do and care about the students and the students are consistently trying to be better and get to that next level,” said Gregerman.
Being a part of this department has meant a lot to the teachers that teach in it. “The biggest reward is the relationship with the students,” said Ortmann.
“The end result is to give the students the best education they can get,” said Gregerman.