Legendary Meadows Valley Teacher and Band Director Hangs Up His Baton After 41 years
Forty-one years is a long time! That is how long Jeff Parnett has been teaching at Meadows Valley School! Finally deciding to retire, he said he stayed so long because it was so much fun!
Upstate New York, in the town of Woodstock is where Jeff grew up, his father owning a meat packing company. He went to school in Kingston, NY, graduating high school in 1970. Two years of Junior College came next, where he took some ecology classes. Liking wildlife research in particular and being of the “save the world generation”, Jeff then transferred to the University of Idaho as a forestry major. Finding himself not doing very well in that subject, but having done pretty well in a music class, he decided to switch to music! Jeff had taken piano lessons growing up, and played drums in high school. He remembers sitting at the drum set in the back of the class, but pretending he was the conductor. To become a music major, he had to audition. He started out playing a piece for about five music instructors and bombed it! He asked them, “I’m sorry, can I just play something I wrote?” He did. The judges were impressed that he could compose and accepted him.
One Thanksgiving, he and his friends were headed to visit someone in Eagle. They ran out of gas in New Meadows. They went to Andy’s Texaco, then on the corner across from Chevron. Jeff remembers the little station having a big pot bellied stove. Jeff thought, “If I live anywhere, it won’t be here.” A few years later, he set out to a wedding in Twin Falls, stopped at Andy’s Texaco again, to decide whether to take Hwy 55 or 95. Andy told them if they were crazy, they’d go 55, if they were merely foolish, they’d go 95. And that was the extent of Jeff Parnett’s knowledge of New Meadows.
Jeff did some civic theater, moved to Wyoming for a while, worked in a music store, moved back to Lewiston, and taught in Lapwai for three years. Around 1981, he found himself unemployed and applied to a bunch of places for a music position. Jeff said, “I look really good on paper but interview poorly”, so he wasn’t getting any offers. One place in Oregon even told him, “We don’t think you’ll fit well in a small town.”
One day, he got a phone call to come interview in New Meadows. He said, “I didn’t apply in New Meadows,” He found out that they had pulled his application from McCall. He thought “OK I’ll give it a shot.” His interview was at one o’clock, but he forgot the time change and ended up in Riggins at one. He called the school. Ellen Carpenter answered the phone and told him they would wait. He gets to the interview and they tell him that the position is only half-time music, the other half is teaching Math. He told them he took Calculus in college and got a D. They said, “Well, do you think you can teach Math?” He said, “ Why not?” They asked if he could play any instruments. He said, “Yeah, I play them all, and repair them.” They told him what they were really looking for was a band to play at sporting events. Mike Howard called a couple days after his interview to tell him they’d decided to offer him the job. Jeff replied, “I’ve decided to accept!” The band played the first football game that year!
Jeff ended up having to take classes over the next three years to get enough credits to be qualified to be a math teacher.
“The kids were great here!” Jeff said he found out. “I fit in, and we did fun stuff! I never considered leaving until the last few years - New Meadows is the best place to live.”
Even in spite of a band room fire in 2007, the music program continued. They only missed one day of rehearsal, practicing at the senior center until they could return to the school.
I asked Jeff what he thought his biggest accomplishment was. He went on about pep band, taking the band to state, playing ice hockey games, NAIA games but finally decided that it was that every kid in New Meadows is able to play in band for free because the school owns all its own instruments.
I asked what advice he would have for new teachers. “To remember we’re there for the kids, no one else matters.” Advice for students? “ Respect authority and challenge authority. Anything you do in life, make sure it’s something that you enjoy and try to be the very best at it. Whatever you end up doing, be the best at it and be happy.” His most memorable moment? Jeff had several: All the winter carnival parades they played in. “Once at a state basketball tournament, they announced the Star Spangled Banner to be played by Meadows Valley Band directed by Jeff Parnett and they spotlighted the band. “I was afraid they’d mess up but they nailed it!” Another time is when he took his 17 students into the U of I Stadium, watched a band of 90 kids and his kids said to him” We’re as good as them.” He said instilling that confidence in his kids was very cool. And another time, after playing at an ice hockey game, getting told, “Wow, you guys are really good! Can you come back in a couple weeks? And come meet the referees and coaches!” Also, the yearly Lewiston trips to plays, even though they didn’t go for seven years after a student threw a stink bomb onstage during a performance.
Jeff has always given his seniors a present during their last Christmas concert and this year he took them to dinner at Regazza de Buffalo in Donnelly. He is now teaching the grandchildren of some of his first students.
There is no plan for boredom in his retirement. Jeff is in a very active jazz band, he is on the city council, is going to do yard work and has a very fun wife that he plays weddings with. Jeff actually played for my wedding in 1987, my husband and I both having been his students. The only thing I missed when I graduated high school, was band.
This is what some of his other students had to say about him:
“Mr. Parnett always has a way with grabbing everyone’s attention when he needs it!” Lonnie Clay-Lewis
“There was never anyone better to give a smile. Mr. P was a teacher who made us want to do our best. I will never forget his patience and kindness! All educators should build a rapport with their students the way Mr. P did, and I’m sure continues to do! You make students better people for falling in love with music. Happy retirement, Mr. P, you deserve it!” Doni Davis (Goff)
“I think one of the many amazing things about Mr. Parnett is how he always took an interest in the weird kids, the oddballs that wouldn’t have fit in elsewhere. He gave us somewhere to feel special and to be part of something. He mentored myself and Bart Carpenter and gave us the confidence to be The Dictating Pears. He told us that if someone had ever paid us to perform, we were professional musicians and should be treated as such. He told us not to sell ourselves short. Mr. Parnett plays a huge part in my favorite memories of junior high and high school. He embodies what made growing up in New Meadows so special.” -Tierney Lake
“Jeff Parnett is the epitome of why almost every kid in his classes would say to themselves, ‘I think I want to be a teacher.’ His enthusiasm and love for his students made you want to follow in his footsteps.
“Growing up in the 80s in little New Meadows, Idaho made it often difficult to see yourself out in the world. Jeff Parnett is the kind of teacher who would walk alongside students through a series of experiences, whether it was conquering a piece of music together as a band or providing us with “big city” opportunities. I’ll always treasure our class trips to the Lewiston civic theater, attending concerts at the Morrison Center and going to the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. These “big” trips were a glimpse into a world we then knew we could be a part of.
The music…the music! I attribute Jeff’s influence for the reason I listened to Manhattan Transfer, Chuck Mangione and the Glenn Miller Band with maybe more regularity than Aerosmith and Guns and Roses!
Maya Angelou said ‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’ Jeff Parnett can count his years as an educator, mentor and musician as a stunning success based on the mark he has left on all of his students. We walked away from MVHS feeling valuable and perfectly able to achieve what we set out to. Jeff Parnett made us feel like the sky was the limit.” -Amie McCarty
Don’t miss Mr. Parnett’s last concert on May 15 at MVS!!
