Petition to keep Mr. Eising at James Hubert Blake HS

Best music instructor in MOCO!

A great music teacher!

Mr. Eising has been an dedicated teacher, mentor and member of the Blake High School community for 14 years. He is the foundation and backbone of the music program at the school. If you follow through with your short-sighted and misguided decision to transfer him, this will have a serious impact on the school community and the music program will suffer. This should not be an issue of number crunching. This is a school community where we should be able to find the appropriate resources for the Fine Arts and Humanities signature program and a teacher that has impacted hundreds of students during his tenure at the school.

Lets get to the thousand!

Mr. Eising was a Phenomenal music teacher to me and my peers!

When I think of Blake, the very first person I think of is Mr. Eising. He has a made a huge difference in both of my boys lives. He taught them so much about music. But more importantly, he helped them grow up and ultimately become the quality young men they are today. I often speak with great pride to my friends (who don't live in the Blake district) about how Blake has such an amazing music program. The program is amazing because of Jon Eising. Taking Mr. Eising out of Blake will strip it of one of its greatest assets. I wish you could have attended a homecoming football game at Blake. Had you been to any, you would have been struck by the excellence of the Roaring Bengals Marching Band. And you would have also been struck by how many former band members return to the school and greet Mr Eising with hugs, smiles, and high-fives. The same thing happens at the amazing concerts at Blake every year. I am willing to bet that if Mr Eising is not at Blake in the fall, many of these music alums won't bother to come back. It just won't be the same Blake that they knew and loved. There's one other important thing I want to share with you. I want to let you know that there was a time when a student we know was dealing with depression. One teacher called his parents to make sure they were aware and to offer to help. Would you like guess which teacher that was? Yes, it was Mr. Eising. He could have easily just assumed everything would be okay...or decided that it wasn't his business. But no, he made a difficult phone call to the parents, because he cared. Given that Blake has had three suicides in the last three years (I am counting a recent graduate who committed suicide while in college last fall), isn't a caring teacher like Jon Eising in exactly where he should be right now? I am passionately asking you to reconsider transferring Mr. Eising away from where he belongs.

It is maddening to hear of teachers being forced out of our school, classes being cut, valuable programs being cut, and class time being lost. While at the same time curriculums keep changing and the students spend ridiculous amounts of time being tested. We came to Blake for the programs offered. It is not the closest or most convenient school for us. We came for the music program and Mr. Eising is a valuable part of that. Your mission is to teach. Keep the people who are teaching the programs we came to Blake for.

He is one of the best people I have ever met.

I wouldn’t be touring broadway tours with out his support!

He had a profound influence on my family's love of music. Music teachers are integral members of their communities.

If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be able to go on this trip.

This teacher is a drop in the ocean, and everyone single drop provided to a vast area, consistently provided a shelter for many living things. If you drain the drops in the ocean, you are left with dying, beautiful creatures. Don’t drain your ocean, allow the kids of the school to strive freely in peace. Thank you.

Blake only keeps horrible teachers

As a parent I’ve witnessed the inspiration Mr Eising has had on my son and other students at Blake. Loosing him as their teacher would be a tragedy in the hearts of the students. Sincerely, Concerned Parent

Mr. Eising is part of the reason music has remained such a constant in my life. Heralding the revamped music technology program, Mr. Eising helped create the opportunity that led to me going to Grad school for Audio Technology and pursuing music to this day. Removing Mr. Eising without proper fanfare or ceremony would be, in my opinion, a grave mistake.

In a day and age when our young people need positve roll models how can MCPS be so blind. Pls do not proceed with this transfer!!!

I haven't taken Orchestra with Mr. Eising for a while now, but I was in his ranks for at least all of 9th and 10th grade: the guy is the ultimate band/orchestra teacher. Not only is he a good conductor, and knows how to coherently get his kids to learn and improve their musical skills, Mr. Eising was always a glue that could keep every music class together. I'll never forget having 3 ensembles on stage to play combined pieces at seasonal concerts, or going to festival with Eising in particular. Side note: I do still play violin Mr. Eising I swear!!!

I haven't taken Orchestra with Mr. Eising for a while now, but I was in his ranks for at least all of 9th and 10th grade: the guy is the ultimate band/orchestra teacher. Not only is he a good conductor, and knows how to coherently get his kids to learn and improve their musical skills, Mr. Eising was always a glue that could keep every music class together. I'll never forget having 3 ensembles on stage to play combined pieces at seasonal concerts, or going to festival with Eising in particular. Side note: I do still play violin Mr. Eising u swear!!!

I never took a band class but he was always very nice to me whenever he passed me by and said hello. As I've visited Blake many many times after graduating he still remembers my name and I wasn't even one of his students! Why does MCPS want to get rid of him? I guess they don't want good teachers.

Jon is an amazing instrumental music teacher. I worked with him at Blake. The quality of his instruction brings Blake students to a level that would be unattainable by other teachers. Blake is a school of the arts, why would you take a veteran teacher out of a school where he makes such a difference