Good Morning Parents and Students,

I’ll begin with a quick thank you to our students for an awesome job at the SUSD Welcome Back Assembly on Wednesday. I heard nothing but positive comments from everyone about how you all looked and sounded!

Here are the important things you need to know for the upcoming week…I promise not every email will be this long, but this one is important!

1) Monday is the first day of school. 0 Hour Jazz Band will meet on Monday. Jazz Band will need instruments on day 1. Other classes will not need instruments on Monday, but will need them for the remainder of the week.

2) During MPH on Monday there will be a brief leadership meeting for student leaders to go over a few things for the first week back. The band room will be closed to others during MPH.

3) During MPH on Tuesday there will be a mandatory meeting for all students in band and fall semester sports in the band room. If your sport begins after Nov. 17 you do not need to attend. The purpose of the meeting is to set very clear expectations for managing schedule conflicts between sports and band. The band room will be closed to others during MPH.

4) Tuesday evening rehearsal is 5:00-8:30.

5) Senior banner photos will take place after school on Wednesday beginning at 3:00. Students will be in uniform for the photos, so plan accordingly.

6) Percussion sectionals begin on Thursday from 3:45-6:00. Now that sectional times for percussion have been confirmed with staff they will be added to the calendar this weekend. If students need to take the late activity bus home they will be dismissed with enough time to catch the bus. Please reach out to Mr. Cervenka for questions. Guard sectionals will also take place on Thursdays from 3:45-6:00, and will begin on August 24.

7) Parent volunteers: Please remember that any parent wishing to volunteer with the band in any capacity for the year must be an approved district volunteer. Please take care of the volunteer application this week if you have not done so already. More information on how to become a volunteer can be found here: https://susd30.us/families/volunteers/

8) Parents: Our boosters have an apparel shop up and running for parent volunteers if you’re looking for some new gear to sport at games and competitions. Orders are due Aug. 10, so get them in quickly! The link to the order form is here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeALkjXlSQO0DFAdB-XFOIWwugcry5DosJJPsDzbsZDqV-LXQ/viewform

9) We just crossed the halfway point on the email fundraiser. Last year at the end of 3 weeks we had raised just a little over $16,000. This year, with 11 days remaining we are at $15,544!!! The money earned from the fundraiser is HUGE in funding our operations for the year in a normal year, but as we have outgrown our trailer we are looking to purchase a second trailer this year, every extra dollar we can earn really counts. Since we have so much time left on the fundraiser and are so close to our initial goal, I’d like to create a push goal for these last 11 days to hit the $20,000 mark.

Here’s how we do that:

A) Parents and Students, please take a moment to look at your list of emails in the portal to see who has donated and who has not. For anyone that hasn’t donated yet, send them a text and ask them to do so.Personal messages go a long way! (and parents, if your student hasn’t earned anything towards the fundraiser so far, help them out…we all need to do our part to keep our program successful).

B) Look through your contacts and see if you can identify 3 or 4 additional people you may know who may be willing to donate. Add their emails to the portal this weekend or send them a text and invite them to donate. If everyone finds 1 or 2 more donors it would be a huge boost to our earnings.

C) If you haven’t done so already, share the QR code with coworkers, at family gatherings…wherever you might run into a person or two who might be willing to make a small donation and send it our way.

D) Lastly, don’t forget to remind people about donor matching and corporate sponsorships. If there are any businesses that are willing to pitch in for the fundraiser, they can add their advertisement to our fundraising page, and we’ll be happy to spread the word and offer them continued support going forward!

Looking ahead:

Don’t forget that the due date for submitting excused absences from performance is August 16. Now that we are out of camp, the ONLY method of submitting non-emergency absences for excusal is by the Absence Reporting Form, available at sahuaritamusic.org

Our first Friday rehearsal is August 25. We will be taking individual and group photos in uniform during this rehearsal. Attendance is mandatory, and students who participate in sports or other activities that practice on Fridays should plan on being with us for the entire rehearsal on August 25.

Mr. Benjamin Garland
Director of Instrumental Music
Sahuarita High School
(520)625.3502 x1551