Important Updates – PLEASE READ!

What an eventful week last week turned out to be! Despite the unexpected curveballs that have been thrown our way, I do have exciting announcements to share with you all, in addition to some important updates and reminders for this week.

1) Congratulations to the Sahuarita String Orchestra on a great performance at ABODA Area Festival on Thursday, and to their EXCELLENT rating for their performance. For a small group of strings, that is an outstanding achievement, and the first time our Orchestra has received an Excellent rating at the spring festival in a long time (if at all). I'm very proud of your performance, and on a personal note, thank you for being so understanding and cooperative with having to hang out on the bus for so long when we returned to campus, as well as being so easy to manage in the auditorium once the evacuation began.

2) Congratulations also to the Sahuarita Symphonic Band on their performance at ABODA Area Festival on Friday, and to their well-deserved SUPERIOR rating for their performance. I'm not sure when (or if) the band last received a Superior at festival, but it has been quite a long time. Your hard work, dedication, and perseverance on some challenging repertoire have certainly paid off. I also want to extend a thank you to you all for working together to gather instruments and music for everyone on Thursday and getting everything moved over to the auditorium. Again, you handled yourselves maturely and professionally in a very difficult situation.

3) Congratulations to the Sahuarita Winterguard for advancing to Finals at the WGI Phoenix Regional on Saturday. This is the guard's first time advancing to finals at WGI. Fourteen schools from Arizona, Texas, and Nevada competed in their division, and only the top five schools advanced to the finals competition, where the guard took home fifth place. This is a huge achievement for the guard, and I'm proud of your work so far this season. Keep pushing to the end!

4) Great job to the SHS Jazz Band for their performance at Jazz in the Desert on Saturday! I received so many compliments on how great you all sounded, and I agree completely!

5) Our rescheduled Band and Orchestra Pre-Festival Concert (now the Band and Orchestra Post-Festival Concert) takes place tomorrow night in the auditorium at 6:00P. Because students have already missed class time due to festival and the evacuation on Thursday, I have decided that we will NOT sound check at the auditorium tomorrow afternoon. With that being said, call time for percussion ensemble (and flute soloist) will be 5:00, and for winds and strings call time will be 5:30. The concert starts at 6:00.

6) Jazz Band parents and students: Tonight after I get back from Green Valley Concert Band I will send out an email with updates specifically for Jazz Band, including performance information for ABODA Area Jazz Festival on Thursday and final financial information for the spring trip. Please be on the lookout for this important information.

7) And finally for parents, with the hectic and very unpredictable schedule of the past few days, I'll be catching up on emails tonight and finishing grade updates tomorrow. Thank you for your patience with delayed replies to email since Thursday. In regards to grades, I will be providing students with multiple opportunities this week to make up points for scales they haven't submitted, missing daily grades, etc. Please encourage your student to take advantage of these opportunities and utilize MPH this week. There's no good reason anyone should have a grade less than an A in Band or Orchestra, and I'm here to help, but they have to make the effort to show up for that assistance.

Have a great week everyone, and please be on the lookout for additional updates!