Marshfield Students Blend Art and Music in Innovative Performance
School Committee spotlights unique collaboration at South River School, while grappling with budget constraints for upcoming fiscal year
MARSHFIELD - March 11 - The Marshfield School Committee meeting at South River School featured an innovative collaboration between art and music students who transformed visual designs into musical performances, while also addressing significant budget challenges for the upcoming fiscal year.
Four South River School string students performed their original "graphic scores" – visual designs they created to represent musical sounds rather than traditional notes – demonstrating a creative educational approach that bridges visual arts and music.
"What you're going to see and hear are called graph scores where they're combining art and visual art and then music to kind of come up with their own sounds," explained Mr. DeRosa, one of South River's art teachers. "They create patterns and designs. And what they do is they use all those things and those symbols instead of musical notes."
String teacher Ms. Schoepflin described how the project developed after she discovered a book about composer John Cage, known for breaking musical barriers.
"First I was drawn to that aspect of it. And then when I actually opened up the book, I was like, wait a minute, this illustrator really, for me, showed off how these sounds can be seen as images," Schoepflin said. "The students kind of went in three phases. We started with testing out the sounds on our instruments and just learning the various sounds that they could create on their instruments."
South River Principal Emily Baird praised the collaboration, noting that the school had "never highlighted the art" in a Spotlight on Excellence presentation before.
School Committee Chair Sean Costello expressed his enthusiasm for the performance.
"That was certainly not something we've ever seen in the spotlight before. And I absolutely loved it," Costello said. "I loved watching all of you play, but then like looking and following along and seeing your interpretation of the notes on your graphic score, that was really cool."
The committee also recognized Cora Norcott, the district's Project 351 Ambassador, who presented her community service project involving a clothing drive for Cradles to Crayons.
"Every year, the eighth-grade ambassadors team up with Cradles to Crayons, and Cradles to Crayons is a clothing drive, and we give it to kids," Norcott explained. "This was a clothing drive district-wide, so all of the schools and everyone can be a part of it."
Budget concerns dominated the business portion of the meeting, with Thomas Miller, the district's Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance, reporting that Marshfield Public Schools still faces a significant gap between what the town has committed and what the district needs to maintain current services.
"Right now, as it stands, we are still at a 3% increase in the warrant," Miller said. "We have been working collaboratively with the town with some free cash items that won't necessarily be on the budget article, but free cash that would push the budget up to a 4.09% increase."
Miller explained that maintaining the current level of service would require a 4.73% increase, leaving approximately $380,000 in unmet needs.
Costello expressed frustration with the budget situation, noting discrepancies between what the district requested and what was reported in town documents.
"We are slated for a 3% increase, which is in the town administrator's budget presentation that we requested a 3% increase. We did not. We requested over a 5% increase," Costello said. "At the same time, the town government is going up by about 8.29%, and general government is going up by 13%. And here we are having to potentially make decisions that are going to impact students."
Costello also raised concerns about a revenue sharing agreement dating back to 2011-2012 that he believes is not being followed.
"Those revenue sharing agreements do not expire. There's no expiration date in those. They were agreed upon by our boards at the time, and they need to be followed," he said.
*editors note: the district and town subsequently reached an agreement on a 4.57% increase, announced in this press release: link
Superintendent Patrick Sullivan provided updates on several district initiatives, including the upcoming "Mosaic" event celebrating cultural diversity within the Marshfield community.
"It's celebrating everyone's culture. Literally everyone," Sullivan said. "We have Irish step dancers, we have some other musical performances happening, food, lots of food."
The event is scheduled for March 27 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Marshfield High School and will feature tables representing various cultures including Ukraine, Brazil, and Chile.
Sullivan also highlighted the district's Belonging Team initiative, which recently featured high school students presenting ideas to work with elementary students on social-emotional learning.
"That reciprocal nature of students, older students leaving, working with younger students, and then the younger students wanting to follow in their footsteps is so powerful," Sullivan said.
The committee approved the school committee calendar for the 2025-2026 school year and received updates from various departments, including special education program planning for the Extended School Year program and the upcoming school year.
Miller concluded the meeting with an announcement about the 15th annual Marshfield-St. Patrick's Day 5K, which has 3,294 registrants and is on pace to be the largest ever.