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2019 BOA San Antonio


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Yep.  It's like a farm program.  To my amazement, they strongly encourage kids starting in 6th grade to take private lessons.  They line up the instructors and steer kids to them, carving out time during normal rehearsal or before/after school.  Rates are fixed by the district based - typically about $20-$25 per half hour (not bad consider I pay $38 for half hour of piano lessons).  The curriculum is coordinated with the directors.  

 

As far as I know, they don't do any actual marching performance in middle school.  There's a middle school night, but it is stand and play.  Around April or May they start inviting the middle school kids to practice with the high school kids in after school "camps."  All that helps build excitement.  I remember because my Class'19 graduate came home from a camp really energized about joining the band.

 

Maybe other districts do the same.

 

Keller ISD does the same thing. I would have to say for Flower Mound and Marcus the cost per student that is required to be spent is far and above surrounding highschools. Even the Lewisville HS band fee is quite a bit less. Part of Marcus and Flower Mound success is rich folks spending lots of money. 

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I find this a really stupid comment. FYI, if you were following the UIL Music program web site a couple of years ago, it was decided that the time limit had to be enforced because many of the  Bands that had large items to get off the field were consistently going over time because the Directors felt that UIL would never enforce this rule. As you might be aware, last year the Biggest Band in the State of TX was rightly penalized because they did not plan how to get all the performers and props off the field after 8 minutes. Interestingly enough, the folks at Allen did not complain about this.  Being late off the field is a direct fault of the Directors of the Bands in Question, who cannot plan their show well enough.  Further it seems that many folks in the Thread love to critique UIL for just about  everything. I saw someone say that it was the old men at UIL who are the problem. Wrong answer. BOA schools are less than 15%of the UIL and have been consistently that number of schools over the years.  I live in a School district that choose Orchestra funding over the cost of entering our Marching Bands in BOA events.  Those of us in the music field felt this was a better use of our funds. Many other school districts also have choosen not to do BOA.  I have no problem with Bands that do BOA, I Just wish that some of their fans knew more about why the rest of us have decided not to go that route instead of trying to make us like you folks in rules and ways of doing things.   Also in regard to old men, today 6 of the 32 HS Bands at NAMMB Contest(Military Marching) are lead by Female Senior Directors. What is the percentage of senior directors of the BOA Bands that have Female Senior Directors. I think BOA does many good things, why not talk about that and stop bitching about the rest of us.  Also the NAMMB contest is being streamed free of charge.

 

I find this and many of your other comments stupid as well. Please stop bitching about everything you don't agree with and can't accept. No one asked you to come here. It was a better place before you did. 

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Keller ISD does the same thing. I would have to say for Flower Mound and Marcus the cost per student that is required to be spent is far and above surrounding highschools. Even the Lewisville HS band fee is quite a bit less. Part of Marcus and Flower Mound success is rich folks spending lots of money. 

 

I have to agree there are two things the most successful bands have in common:

1) upper-middle and upper class school district

2) heavy parental involvement

 

I think there's a point where throwing in more money stops helping, but there's also a point below which you can't get even the basic transportation, equipment, teachers, etc. 

 

Speaking for the Cedar Park area, it is a pretty wide range.  Definitely it can be quite a burden on some parents, especially younger parents with multiple kids.

 

I'm going to make a mistake here and add things up...

 

Private lessons - $800/year, 7 years = $5600

Basic marching fees - $1200/year, 4 years = $4800

Donations and fundraisers - varies considerably, say $500/year, 4 years = $2000

"Nice" instrument - varies considerably, say $1500 

T-shirts - $10 each, 5/year, 4 years = $200

Lifelong friendships, memories, and character building -priceless!

 

So probably $10k-$15k investment over seven years, about a semester or year of college.  I guess it seemed like more when writing checks for two and three kids.  For some people this is a huge sacrifice, for others it is round-off error in their checking account or the difference between getting the Model 3 or Model S.

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Greetings everyone! I’ve been lurking in the sidelines following everyone’s comments and the topic of band fees is a subject that is near and dear to me, having spent 12 years as the President of the Vista Murrieta boosters. To put things in perspective, in Calif it’s illegal to charge any band fees or fees for travel, plus there is almost no funding from the schools or districts. Plus, all staff except the Director, is paid by the boosters. So when you see a Vista Murrieta or Ayala (for the most part the only two bands in the state that travel) 100% of their operating costs (travel, music, instruments, uniforms, staff, etc) are covered by donations and fundraising. Just a trip to GN or San Antonio is a $275,000 expense, plus normal operating costs.

 

For us, trips like this are all about providing our kids with positive life experiences, and we couldn’t be more impressed with the wonderful hospitality of everyone in San Antonio! Thank you!!!

 

That's really unfortunate that our largest state by population and (almost) largest by state income tax rate can't fund programs like these.  Glad you made it here.  We here are glad to have the out-of-staters come and keep us honest.  

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Greetings everyone! I’ve been lurking in the sidelines following everyone’s comments and the topic of band fees is a subject that is near and dear to me, having spent 12 years as the President of the Vista Murrieta boosters. To put things in perspective, in Calif it’s illegal to charge any band fees or fees for travel, plus there is almost no funding from the schools or districts. Plus, all staff except the Director, is paid by the boosters. So when you see a Vista Murrieta or Ayala (for the most part the only two bands in the state that travel) 100% of their operating costs (travel, music, instruments, uniforms, staff, etc) are covered by donations and fundraising. Just a trip to GN or San Antonio is a $275,000 expense, plus normal operating costs.

 

For us, trips like this are all about providing our kids with positive life experiences, and we couldn’t be more impressed with the wonderful hospitality of everyone in San Antonio! Thank you!!!

Thanks for coming down to San Antonio. We’re very happy to have you and hope y’all are having a good time
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Greetings everyone! I’ve been lurking in the sidelines following everyone’s comments and the topic of band fees is a subject that is near and dear to me, having spent 12 years as the President of the Vista Murrieta boosters. To put things in perspective, in Calif it’s illegal to charge any band fees or fees for travel, plus there is almost no funding from the schools or districts. Plus, all staff except the Director, is paid by the boosters. So when you see a Vista Murrieta or Ayala (for the most part the only two bands in the state that travel) 100% of their operating costs (travel, music, instruments, uniforms, staff, etc) are covered by donations and fundraising. Just a trip to GN or San Antonio is a $275,000 expense, plus normal operating costs.

 

For us, trips like this are all about providing our kids with positive life experiences, and we couldn’t be more impressed with the wonderful hospitality of everyone in San Antonio! Thank you!!!

Wow! Welcome to Texas! Best of luck to you and your band and safe travels back to CA!

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