Mona Shores Public Schools

Mona Shores Public Schools is a public school district located in Michigan, United States, in the western side of the state near Lake Michigan. The district includes most of the city of Norton Shores, which is just south of Muskegon. The current superintendent is Greg Helmer.

The district was formed in 1959, when the residents of the existing districts of Churchill, Hile, Lincoln, Maple Grove, and Mona Beach (all K-8 districts) voted to unite into a single K-12 district. The district comprises four elementary schools (K-5), one middle school (6-8) and Mona Shores High School, with total enrollment of about 3,800 students.

The Mona Shores Public Schools has a thriving fine arts department. In 2004, the Mona Shores High School was only one of forty high schools in the country to receive the Grammy Signature School Award for excellence in music education. Mona Shores Public Schools offers band, choir, orchestra, music theory, and guitar courses to its students.

The school is well known for its band program which includes outstanding Concert Bands, Jazz Ensembles and Marching Band. The Marching Band won state titles in 1993, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2003 as well as a USSBA National Championship in 2006. Travel has played an important role in the success of the Mona Shores band program with overseas performance tours every three years since 1972 and many performance tours to the U.S. East coast, South and Midwest. The current director of the Mona Shores band program is Jason Boyden. Assistant directors are Matthew Sedatole and Gregory Nimtz. Former directors include: John Butterfield (1962-1985) and Jack Adams (1985-2003). Former assistant directors include: Jack Cooke, Bernie Blue, Douglas Hostetler, Susan Veenstra and Timothy Staudacher.

The district is also well known for its choral program under the current direction of Shawn Lawton (Mona Shores High School) and Kyle Cain(Mona Shores Middle School). Former high school directors include: Larry Gray and Skip Frizzell. Former middle school directors include: Larry Rueger and Katherine Bourdon. In 2002, a number of auditioned members of the Mona Shores Singers (the top choir at the time) were invited to perform at the White House for the president and his staff. The choir also presents many annual concerts including Pop go the Sailors and The Singing Christmas Tree, which is the largest in the United States. The choirs singing Christmas Tree was featured on TLC's production of Extreme Christmas Trees in December 2011.

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