Meet the Directors
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Band Director, Ms. Kuentz
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Jennifer Kuentz has been the head band director at Rawlinson Middle School since its opening in 2003. Prior to teaching at Rawlinson, she was the assistant band director at Stinson Middle School. Ms. Kuentz is a graduate of John Marshall High School and received her Bachelor’s of Music degree in Trumpet Performance from UTSA. After graduating Ms. Kuentz pursued her first love, playing the trumpet. She has had the privilege to perform extra with the San Antonio Symphony, a member of the San Antonio Brass, San Antonio Municipal Band, etc. She still manages to perform some today! After a few years of performing, Ms. Kuentz then received her Teaching Certification and began teaching at Stinson in 1993. She loves working with and teaching students the love of music that she learned as a beginning trumpet player in middle school.
Ms. Kuentz comes from a very large and musical family. Both of her parents taught music in Northside ISD – her father retired as a band director and mother a retired elementary music teacher. Her brother is the head band director at Clark HS. All of her siblings played in the “band”. Even to this day, they all get together during the holidays (now with many additional family members) and play! Ms. Kuentz will be teaching beginning band classes, the A1 Band and Jazz Band. In addition to teaching responsibilities, Ms. Kuentz is also the Region XI Middle School Band Chairperson.
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Band Director, Mrs. Rogers
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Mrs. Rogers is currently in her second year at Rawlinson. She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Music Education from Texas Tech University (Go Tech!). Mrs. Rogers has taught private flute lessons for many years, served as a Drill Instructor while in the Goin' Band at Tech, and spent several years teaching flute choir at the Texas Tech Band and Orchestra Camp. She has been playing flute for 13 years, and also plays piccolo, alto sax, percussion, and some trombone and baritone. Having recently been married, Mrs. Rogers lives in San Antonio with her husband, Taft HS Assistant Choir Director Rob Rogers, and their two miniature schnauzers: 3 year old Tobie and 3 month old Charlie. She is a HUGE schnauzer fan! Outside of school Mrs. Rogers loves to cook, arrange music, listen to film scores, and travel. To date, she has been to more foreign countries than she has states! (13 countries to 9 states) She and her husband often play game cube, watch movies, and varied card games. Her absolute favorite food to eat and cook is her dad's flat enchiladas. This year, Mrs. Rogers will be teaching beginning percussion, flutes, double reeds, and low brass in addition to the A2 band. Outside of music, she will be teaching two Skills for Adolescents classes. This promises to be an exciting year for the band program!
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Orchestra Director, Mrs. Vanessa Jackson
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Mrs. Jackson is the orchestra director at Rawlinson Middle School. She has taught music in some form or fashion since she was seventeen years old. As an army wife, she has moved all over Texas with her husband who is a member of the military bands and currently plays tuba with the Fort Sam Houston Medical Command Band. She is the proud parent of a daughter and a son. Her daughter is a cello player and her son is learning piano. She also has two cats and two dogs. Mrs. Jackson is a highly trained classical pianist. She earned her degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1995. That summer she also studied in Tabov, Russia at the Rachmaninov school. She grew up in an small town that had no orchestra, but it was close enough to Houston that as an oboist/english horn player with her high school, she able to audition for and earn chairs in The Gulf Chevron Festival of Schools Orchestras as well as the Houston Youth Symphony. She has performed professionally on piano, oboe, saxophone, and bass. She is thrilled to be able to working at Rawlinson Middle School and can't imagine being anywhere else.
Choir Director, Kathy Settles-Horejsi
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