Kim Harrison Email: eaharris@smsd.org Phone: 993-6757
Kim Harrison is a graduate of Plainville, Kansas High School in 1972. He then graduated with a B.S. in Music Education from Kansas State University in 1977. He then toured the U.S. with a contemporary Christian recording band based out of Nashville, Tennessee for two years. He then taught at Thomas More Prep-Marian High School in Hays, Kansas from 1979-1982. From 1982-1985 he taught band at Nallwood Junior High School in Shawnee Mission. He then was awarded a graduate teaching fellowship at Wichita State University, where he received his Master’s degree in Music Education in 1986. He was selected as the director of bands at East in the fall of 1986. He teaches the marching band, symphonic band, both jazz bands and music theory at the high school. He has been a clinician for marching bands, concert bands, and jazz bands in the states of Oklahoma, Missouri, New York, as well as the state of Kansas. In the 2005-2006 school year he was chosen as the Outstanding Instrumental Music Educator for the Northeast Kansas Music Educator’s Association. The concert bands, marching bands, jazz bands at Shawnee Mission East have been receiving superior ratings at music festivals consistently for the past two decades.
Melissa Watzke Email: thwatzke@smsd.org Phone: 993-6807 Ms. Watzke's website is: www4.smsd.org/melissawatzke
Ms. Watzke is a graduate of Northwest Missouri State University and is in her 8th year of teaching. She taught middle school band for the first four years at Excelsior Springs Middle School and has experience in the Kearney School District, Independence School District, and the Park Hill School District. Ms. Watzke is a member of MENC and KMEA and plays the flute with the Platte City Community Band under the direction of Alfred E. Sergel, III. This is her first year of teaching in Shawnee Mission where she is responsible for the second concert band and assists with the Marching Band at Shawnee Mission East High School and she teaches band and strings at six area elementary schools.