Three Rivers Community Schools voted Monday to hire Cheryl Thomas as the new director for the Three Rivers Middle School and High School bands. Board of Education President Erin Nowak said Thomas’ extensive experience and accolades set her apart from other candidates. Thomas replaces Bryan VanToll, the well-regarded director for the past 11 years, who has accepted a new position at Portage Central High School.
Watershed Voice reached out to Thomas to learn more about the background and skills she will bring to Three Rivers. She credits VanToll with her interest in the community and its schools.
“I really got to know (VanToll) a little better because he was president of District Eleven and I was president of District Six for the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association,” Thomas said. “So, you know, all the presidents get together and we get to talk.
“I had heard the bands at marching competitions and at the spring conference when they performed at Western (Michigan University) and at the Michigan Music Conference. I heard them in January and was just very impressed by all of those performances. And in talking with Bryan, he just was telling me what a great community it is, how there is support from everybody, not just the parents and students, but everybody. The administration and the whole community is just really geared up, wanting and fostering a really great program, and I thought I would love to be a part of it.”
Thomas is a Michigander by birth. She grew up in Hastings, and said, “I am proud of that area.” Her father worked at Kellogg’s in Battle Creek, and when she was young, her mother taught physical education and coached in Lawrence before later becoming a stay-at-home parent.
A long history with music, teaching, and band leadership began for Thomas in childhood.
“I played a little bit of piano when I was in elementary school, but then I started in the band program and played the trombone and I loved it,” she said. “Later, I participated in solo ensemble and all of the things that band kids do throughout the program. My junior year and my senior year, I was in the all state jazz band.”
After high school, Thomas earned a bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University and was a drum major in the Broncos Marching Band. Following that, she earned a master’s degree in music from the American Band College at Southern Oregon University, specializing in conducting. “I flew out to Oregon for three summers for that degree. I loved it. It was fantastic, and I loved everything about Western as well.”
Her first two years teaching were in Bangor. For the past 16 years, Thomas has taught in Coloma, which is northeast of St. Joseph a few miles inland from Lake Michigan. She was able to grow the program during that time. “When I started there, the high school band had 42 kids in it,” Thomas said. “They’re in the 70s right now. But we had a real big growth period there where we maxed out at 106, which is fantastic. And they have a good, healthy program.”
Thomas said she attributes the growth to “hunger for music,” and to some successes she was able to help the band achieve.
“There were four years where we earned first place at a marching invitational, the same one, and that was huge. And it really set the kind of set the fire, so to speak, the passion fire,” she said. “And, yeah, it was a great time.”
Although Thomas has been enjoying a brief vacation upstate, she has already jumped into her duties in Three Rivers, working with administrators to plan reopening measures amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m very hopeful that we can, number one, keep the students safe, (that) would be our goal and to have a great season,” Thomas said. “We are in conversations pretty much every day about it. And yesterday, there is the big (school planning) document that came out from the governor and it hasn’t even been out for 24 hours, so everybody’s kind of reading it and digesting it and seeing what we can do and how we can be safe.”
Based on her background and interests, Thomas looks forward to working with the schools’ band programs. “I’m very excited about the marching band. It’s one of my passions. I love all the aspects of a band program, but marching band is one of my favorites. I’m also excited that there is kind of a jazz band. I have heard that it could be maybe a little bit bigger, so maybe in a year or so there’d be something I’d look at doing. But I’m very excited to meet the students and I know that they’ve done very well in their marching season.”
Thomas said she is happy that moving to Three Rivers will bring her a little bit closer to family, along with her husband, who is from the Kalamazoo area. She brings two daughters with her, one entering the second grade and one entering the sixth. She plans to enroll them in Three Rivers schools.
Dave Vago is a staff writer and columnist for Watershed Voice. A Philadelphia native with roots in Three Rivers, Vago is a planning consultant to history and community development organizations and is the former Executive Director of the Three Rivers DDA/Main Street program.
