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From Mr. Chester and Mr. Shepherd:
Dear Friends and Family of the Hillwood High School Band,
I hope this email finds you in good spirits as we contend with the chilly weather. I wanted to pass along some information regarding our performance and rehearsal calendar for the 2009 spring semester.
Over the past few weeks, several parents and students have voiced concern, opposition, and frustration regarding an allotment of what they consider to be an excessive amount of after school rehearsals and performances. While we as directors try to do everything we can to build our program upon an educationally sound curriculum through music education, we also recognize that today's Hillwood High School Band Students are some of the most active, academically high achieving students who have a whole slew of other commitments beyond that of members of the Hillwood High School Band.
In addition, we have noticed that many of our students are now seeking employment with local businesses in the greater Bellevue area. While we applaud the effort of these students to delve into financial independence, we know that for some of these students finding a job is not so much a means to and end, as it is out of absolute necessity.
Many of our families are struggling through this economy and one of the very first things that are being neglected is band fees. Likewise, many of the businesses are unable or unwilling to work with the students' band schedules. When it comes down to it, band students are now being faced with tough decisions that they have never had to face before: do they hold on to a job and quit band, or quit work just to meet the demands of the band calendar.
In order to address the needs of our parents and students, we are revising our 2009 Spring Semester rehearsal and performance calendar. We will pass out the new calendar to the students tomorrow (1/29/2009) upon our return to school. Another version will be sent out via email and made available on our website.
Until further notice, all after school rehearsals have been suspended. This does not include jazz band which will continue to meet after school on Wednesday's from 3:00 PM until 4:30 PM. The concert band camps that were scheduled for January 31st, 2009 and February 28th, 2009 have also been cancelled.
Thank you for your continued support of the band program at Hillwood High School. We will continue to keep you posted through e-mail. If you have any further questions or concerns please feel free to email me at michael.chester@mnps.org.
Warmest Regards,
Michael Chester |
