Cold Rain

Thursday in my opinion is one of the most important practices of the week. I checked the weather as school let out and it called for rain about an hour into our practice so I told the percussion to stay inside. We don't have a battery this year. We were outside and it started to rain and I had warned the kids earlier in the week to prepare for that because we lost an outside practice on Monday because of rain. But the rain started to come down harder and it was cold so we went inside to work on the homecoming music while it let up. We got back outside after about 20 minutes and as soon as we started to run the show it started to rain again. It was not as hard as before so we stayed outside and it stopped after about 10 minutes. We really needed the outside time to try and clean some more of the show.
I've also had a problem as of late with a couple of students that will miss practice without a valid excuse or without even coming to talk with me when I see them the next day. Attendance at rehearsals and performances is mandatory and it affects their grade when they miss one. For some that doesn't seem to sink in to well.
I've also had a recent rumbling from a parent about band letters and bars. There are some students at the high school who have bars and letters and are no longer in the program. I don't think this is fair to those kids that do stick it out until they graduate. So since I am the director now I made a change to that policy. They can still buy their band jacket during their sophomore year but they will receive a bar for every marching season they complete once it is done. They will get their band letter their senior year as long as they have at least marched two years with the program. The reason I do it that way is because someone who is in color guard could conceivably just march their senior year and get a bar and a letter. I think this is fair and my door is always open if a parent needs to come and discuss a concern with me.