Kingston Middle School band director Jeff Haag is retiring after 30 years in the North Kitsap School District, a tenure that put the KMS program on the map with countless award-winning performances at major West Coast events.
During his tenure, Haag’s bands won over 40 first-place awards in parades. He has also been part of 105 parades, 150 concerts and 60 contests, among other smaller events.
Haag’s final concert was June 12 at KMS, where about 500 people showed up to bid him farewell. The concert featured KMS and Kingston High School bands, former band members, friends, family and community members. Haag joined the bands for a few tunes, playing bass and French horn.
“In some ways, it filled up the way it used to look back in our junior high days,” Haag said of his final concert. “There were people lined up all over West Kingston Road finding parking.”
The high school and middle school bands combined to play “‘Fanfare and Celebration” near the end of the concert. The last song was one he typically ends his summer concerts with—the classic rock song “Louie Louie.” Some former band members played along while Haag and his wife Kathleen danced.
“I felt deeply grateful that I could work with so many talented students and parents over the years,” Haag said. “I teach more than just music. I try and teach life skills like how to work together as a team. We just had to take it a notch above what you might normally think. We were invited to perform at some (big) events, and we had to think outside the box.”
In his mid-60s, Haag said now is the time to retire as he has developed hearing issues. “I’m at the point where I want to enjoy my life with my family. It was a good time for me to pass the baton.”
Tom Guenther, who has been the KHS band director since 2015, will oversee the middle school and high school programs.
“It was just an obvious choice realizing we’re having some cutbacks in the district, and we’re going to have to condense and consolidate some positions,” Haag said.
Early years
Haag is a 1976 graduate of Tigard High School in Portland and holds a bachelor’s degree in Music Education, along with a master’s degree in education, his biography on the NKSD website states. He taught in Oregon before enlisting in the Army Band at Fort Lewis, where his duties included bugler and assistant conductor.
Haag then came to NKSD in 1993, where he was band director at the North Kitsap High School and at Poulsbo Elementary. He also taught band at Wolfle, Suquamish and Gordon elementary schools.
Haag recalled an unusual happening during his first year at NKHS. The band’s bus broke down near Lake Shasta in Northern California on the way back from Disneyland. They were wondering how they would get home. Out of the blue, an empty prison bus pulls into the rest area at 2 a.m. It was headed back to Tacoma so they hitched a ride back home.
Tragedy followed in the mid-1990s when Haag’s first wife got sick and died of cancer. He was amazed by the community support during “some of the darkest days of my life. I wanted to always give back by providing the best program that I could do.” He remarried in 1999.
Building a program
Haag is most notably known for his work at KMS since 1994. Since then the Cavalier band has earned numerous “Superior” and “Excellent,” “Grandsweepstakes” and “First/Second Place” awards in local parades and contests as well as in Victoria, B.C., Portland and Disneyland. They also have performed the national anthem at Seattle Supersonics NBA basketball games four times in Key Arena. At its height, the band had over 180 people in the program.
“Just the sheer fact we were able to take a junior high/middle school band to places like Disneyland and Victoria; a lot of high school bands don’t do that,” he said.
Haag was also music planning director for KHS where he was director of bands and choir from 2013-15. The Buccaneer band won numerous local awards and had successful tours to Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
Keeping in touch with his former students is important to Haag. Up to 500 of them are Facebook friends. Some have gone on to their own careers in music, and he’s also taught the children of some of his ex-students. “It makes for interesting parent-teacher conferences,” he said with a laugh.
Over the years, Haag has performed on French horn, trumpet, and electric/string bass. Past performance credits include the Opera Association and Continental Orchestra and Singers, where he has performed with Amy Grant and Sandi Patty on a tour of the U.S. and Bermuda, per his bio.
His other freelance work includes performances with local jazz and big bands and studio recordings for album, radio and TV commercials, as well as private teaching. He also is the worship coordinator at a local church. And he was a president for the Olympic Music Educators Association and Poulsbo Camp of Gideon’s International. “Anything from Bach to rock, I did that,” Haag said.
Looking ahead
After 30-plus years teaching music, Haag wants to travel with Kathleen, particularly to see his two granddaughters in California, who soon be moving to Hawaii since his son is going to be stationed in the military there. The couple plans to stick around as they have a waterfront home in Keyport that has been in the family for over 60 years. “We’re going to be here a while,” he said, adding he still wants to help local music programs and possibly substitute teach down the road.
Haag concluded: “It’s been a real honor and pleasure to work for (NKSD) and be able to have an impact on so many lives. I am grateful for all the love and support I’ve received over the years from the band boosters to the students to the parents who helped make what we have done here at Kingston Middle School kind of well-known around the Pacific Northwest.”
Other retirees
Four others have worked for the NKSD for 30 years or more, including: Denise Marx, special education paraeducator, 37 years; Christina Stice, special education paraeducator, 35 years; Denise Clark, administrative assistant, special education, 34 years; and Mark Stebbing, math/science teacher, 33 years.
