Candidate Information

Treg Marcellus is in his 9^th year as the Director of Bands and Fine Arts Department Chair at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Des Moines.  Prior to his appointment at Roosevelt, Mr. Marcellus taught at Oxford Junction and more recently at Prairie High School and Middle School in Cedar Rapids.  A native of Humboldt, Treg holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Iowa as well as a Master of Arts in Education from Coe College.  Under Treg’s direction, the Roosevelt HS bands have received consistent “Superior” ratings at state and regional festivals.  This spring, the Roosevelt High School Wind Symphony will make its second appearance as a clinic band at the Iowa Bandmasters Association Conference.  In addition to his teaching duties, Treg is also a 20-year member of the Iowa Army National Guard; in this capacity, Treg is a section sergeant in the 34th Army Band of Fairfield, IA.    Treg has been very active in IBA at the district level; in addition to serving as SCIBA President in 2004 – 2005, Treg has also served as the SCIBA High School Honor Band Co-Chair, as the SCIBA Major Landers Chair, as the SCIBA Marching Band Affairs Representative, and as a charter member of the SCIBA Commissioning Project.  Treg maintains an active clinician and adjudication schedule and has served as a guest conductor at a number of honor bands.

Candidate Campaign Statement

Campaign Statment

   It is indeed a great honor to be nominated by my SCIBA colleagues as their candidate for the office of IBA President-Elect.  During the last twenty years, I have witnessed the impact and influence of the Iowa Bandmasters Association both as a student and as a teacher of music education.  It has been a pleasure and a privilege to be a member of this great organization – an organization that offers so much to its members and to our profession.

   Perhaps the most important thing that IBA offers its members is support within our community.  During my teaching career I have taught at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels. I have taught at one of the smallest schools in the state and currently teach in the state’s largest school district. During this time many things have changed in our schools; however, the one thing that always seems to remain constant is that the students in our bands are the finest group of individuals in our schools. These students are our leaders and our future.  As an organization we must continue to encourage our best students to consider music education as a valuable and rewarding career.  We must help our college students succeed as they transition into our professional community.  Lastly, we need to continue to support our new teachers and help them grow through our mentoring program.  In the early part of my teaching career, I was fortunate to have colleagues and mentors like Steve Colton, Earl Dickenson, Paul Brizzi, Craig Aune, and John McCartney.  Those individuals are a large part of who I am today; as mentors they were so influential in preparing me for this noble and rewarding profession.  Over the past few years, our mentorship program has developed into an important part of our organization.  We need to continue to nurture and expand this program as a means to give our fullest support to our new teachers.  Iowa band directors have always been known for how well we share knowledge; however, we must continue to challenge ourselves to find ways do to so.

   Just as we must continue to nurture our relationships within our IBA community, so too must we continue to build relationships outside our community.  As teachers, we must continue to find new ways to build relationships with our administrators, school boards, and communities. Specifically, I would like to find new ways to educate our administrators, school boards, and communities about the importance of music education in our schools.  We still have programs in our state that are being downsized with staff reductions and budget cuts. We have more and more teachers teaching more grade levels and teaching classes outside their area of expertise.  As the finest band organization in the country, we need to work with our administrators and our legislators to improve the funding and support for music education in our schools.  We must always find new ways to express and illustrate the importance of music to these individuals.  While we have many programs in our state that are growing and having tremendous success, my goal will be to provide support for our programs that are experiencing challenges.