Xenon

Hi, everybody! As a deeply involved alumnus of Duncanville, I'd like to share with you the information that has been shared to the public (both the students/parents and community) so far in both the Mini Band Camp as well as at the Community Meeting with the Superintendent last night. As was noted in the meeting notice above, Mrs. Paula Tagalos (the 2nd Director) is currently the Interim Director and all plans for the 2025 season are moving forward without any changes. No changes to Style, Design, Competition Schedule, etc. During the Superintendent meeting, there were 120+ people that attended to hear what the district had to say and voice their own opinions, thoughts, and concerns. The general tone of the attendees was concern around the lack of transparency, suddenness, fear of the unknown future, and a demand for accountability in how the district has been treating the band program. Part of the reality is that for legal reasons, any school district cannot discuss personnel decisions publicly, and so there is no way to help peoples' desire to know the full "why" of the situation. Another part of the reality is that the district cannot publicly discuss hiring decisions that have not yet been finalized, and so it is hard to help people with their fear of the future. But, while discussing the future direction of the band and listening to the values that the students and parents want to see in the future Head Director, it became evident that the community and the district were aligned in who they both expect and want the future Head Director to be; Mrs. Paula Tagalos. The Superintendent could not come out and say it directly, but he was also unable to avoid hinting in that direction. Again, nothing is changing and it is all but certain that there is no outside-hire coming in to take the Head Director position and change the band. The Drama has largely been due to the lack of transparency and poor and vague messaging about the situation that filled the students, parents, and community with fear, uncertainty, and doubt; and the Superintendent acknowledged and owned up to the districts errors in regard to the transparency and messaging.

Just to make sure everyone has the right information, the correct email address for UIL Music is music@uiltexas.org not .com. The UIL absolutely does want to hear your opinions and feedback on this.

I'm working on taking those down too.

FYI, Recaps are not to be posted here until after the conclusion of Finals Awards as that is UIL's policy for when Recaps are officially publicly posted.

In case you haven't noticed, we have a new, fresh, and much more modern look to the Forums thanks to a big software upgrade from @Clarinot! There's lots of new functionality (like tags) to play around with and I'm sure that some things may be broken. Let us know what you think and if you have found any problems!

What is a test?

Reminder that we are live at http://live.txbands.com all 3 days of GN and mostly just focusing on the 6 Texas Bands. You can also stream with a FloMarching subscription http://bit.ly/2NTi3a5 BOA Grand Nationals Schedule: (all times Eastern) https://marching.musicforall.org/event/grandnationals19/ BOA Grand Nationals Texas Schedule: Thursday: 9:45pm (8:45pm CST) - Claudia Taylor Johnson Friday: 9:15am (8:15am CST) - Vandegrift 9:45am (8:45am CST) - Hebron 10:00am (9:00am CST) - Leander 10:15am (9:15am CST) - The Woodlands 7:15pm (6:15pm CST) - Round Rock

FYI, the schedule has been updated to add both Lake Highlands and JJ Pearce. This is due to the cancellation of the Coppell USBands that has several DFW area bands scrambling to find a replacement competition. It is possible that one or two more may or may not be added in the next day or two. https://www.duncanvilleisd.org/cms/lib6/TX01917816/Centricity/Domain/70/DMI%20Schedule%20102219.pdf

Prosper was a GN Finalist last year and missed Finals at a regular Regional the very next year. I am not aware of a single time that this has ever happened in the past.

That schedule is straight reverse prelims placement order.

Those are awesome, but none of them are even in the same league as the things that have happened so far this year.

It is definitely a different texture, more in line with the rest of the activity, but still with outstanding players. I miss the unique color and visual of the concert French horns, but the mellos allow them to speak and project through a lot more easily.

Finals Schedule: 7:30 - Exhibition - Santa Rosa 7:45 - Mission 8:00 - Sharyland 8:15 - Birdville 8:30 - United 8:45 - Del Rio 9:00 - Pioneer 9:15 - John B Alexander 9:30 - McNeil 9:45 - Roma 10:00 - Winston Churchill That means Pio, JBA, McN, Roma, and WC were top-5.

JBA was nuts!

Also, the rain started when McNeil got their tarps set. Then it stopped shortly after McNeil finished. Then McNeil came back out to do a proper fold on their tarps and the rain started again....

United was awesome. I would personally put Churchill over them, but United had a full show. Hard to pick.

You could definitely tell that they had just put the closer on the field this week too.

Those are my top 5 right now. Mission had some really great moments but also some very not great moments. But overall, all the potential is there and they have a great swagger and presence on the field that will boost their visual scores.

Churchill was super exciting! Love how bought-in the performers are to all of the GE aspects.

That is absolutely incredible! The Commandant's Own is a FANTASTIC group!

I wrote a whole lot about that Brazoswood situation in my post-competition review. That was the 2nd Houston BOA that I'd ever been to.

The live blog (live.txbands.com) is up and running for tomorrow. It was an 8.5 hour drive from Dallas including all stops and meals and such. I’m tired already!

The live blog (live.txbands.com) is up and running for tomorrow. It was an 8.5 hour drive from Dallas including all stops and meals and such. I’m tired already!

I went to IHOP right across the street after staying in the parking lot really late talking to parents. There were lots of kids from the Birdville band in there after they got back from the contest they went to.

I saw the video (not just audio) somewhere fairly recently, but I can't remember where and can't find it again.