You may have heard that AISD made a major announcement this week -- starting next school year (2014-2015), band will start in 7th grade instead of 6th grade. As parents of the band community, I want to make sure you are well-informed about this change (even if your youngest child is already in the band).
Visit this link for the official AISD communication about this decision: http://www.aisd.net/AISD/Portals/95/temp/Beginning Band.pdf
I want you all to know that Mrs. Parker and I support beginning band in 7th grade. Please visit the link for the full reasoning behind it, but we are in favor for two main reasons:
1. Students will have beginning band in like-instrument classes every day. This means that instead of seeing us every other day (I am also calling Moore's schedule "every other day" because 20 minutes isn't long enough to accomplish much, as the kids will tell you), with at least four instruments in the class, they will see us every day with only other students that play their instrument. This translates to having a trumpet class every day, a flute class every day ... you get the idea. The most successful districts in the state use this model.
2. Right now the Martin Band cluster is spread across TEN campuses. Next year, we will be on THREE campuses .... with the same staff. We will be able to utilize the high school directors in a much more meaningful way when they have two feeder campuses to visit instead of nine. This means that your kids have more band directors that they see on a regular basis, and that is a good thing!
We are going to cherish this last year of 6th grade band at Corey, Moore, and Wood, and our current sixth graders should take pride in being the last band students from their elementary schools. We will keep you informed as we build our schedule at Boles for next year. If you have any questions about this, please ask either Mrs. Parker or myself directly and we will answer to the best of our ability. As you can imagine, we don't have all of the answers at this point, but rest assured that we are working through all of the unknowns to build the best possible band program for our students.
One thing I do know is this: if you know any current sixth graders who missed out on beginning band for whatever reason this year, you should encourage them to start next year!!
