TUCSON, Ariz. — There's a small team at the Tucson Unified School District making a big difference for thousands of students.
Inside, you'll find their teacher liason, Cliff Weston, who keeps track of the thousands of instruments coming in and out, and two full time musical instrument repair technicians. David Morgan, and the lead, Sean Randel. Randel has worked there 27 years. "We go in and repair it, or it comes down here to our shop," Randel said."We work closely with our teachers, making sure that they know how to spot a broken instrument. So we do a lot of teaching to our teachers on how to do maintenance and some small repairs also."
If the instrument truly can't be used to make music again though, it'll still be able to make art. Randel says sometimes, they actually give old instrument parts to the district's art department, who often encorporate them into sculptures or displays."I grew up through the TUSD. I remember being in fifth grade and getting my first horn that was a handout instrument, and it's really fun working for the same school district that brought me up through it," he said.