ANDERSON — A silent auction followed by a student concert Wednesday raised money for programs at North Side Middle School.

Andrea Clapp, president of the school’s Parents Club, said the money would help fund academics, sports teams and the school’s music department.

“The funding is going quick in those departments,” she said. “Academics, of course, is the most important thing, but schools need the arts.”

North Side is the only one of Anderson’s three middle schools that has a parents club. The club has sponsored staff appreciation events, a breakfast honoring cafeteria workers and bus drivers, and sought out donations from dozens of local businesses for 31 gift baskets auctioned in the cafeteria.

Sue Hartzell, the school’s choir director, said additional money could go towards upgrading sound equipment or offsetting the cost of the uniform that each of the roughly 150 choir students must purchase.

“It would be so nice to say, ‘Here’s the tie, here’s the shirt, I want you to be a part of this program,” Hartzell said.

North Side’s advanced choir performed in a joint concert with the school’s advanced band, which is led by Donna Wicker.

The band’s selections included “Moonlight Masquerade,” written by Highland High School band director Douglas Fletcher, which Fletcher also conducted, and an arrangement of the “SpongeBob SquarePants” theme song.

The choir performed mostly traditional songs and spirituals, but went modern when the girls sang “All That Jazz” from the musical “Chicago,” complete with a dance routine.

The full choir also sang an arrangement of a Celtic blessing that brought many of the members to tears. It was the group’s final concert at the school.

Students presented both music directors with gifts towards the end of the concert. Wicker received flowers and balloons, and Hartzell’s choir students gave her a scrapbook featuring photos of and messages from each of them.