Letter from Band Director

Letter from Band Director - Mr. Ben Pyatt

Good afternoon everyone!

I hope you all have had a great summer! Obviously, I’ve been a bit “off the grid” the last few weeks. Our babies turn one month old tomorrow and we’ve been enjoying our time together - including our 3 hour feeding schedule! Below is a link to some pictures! Of course, these are the cutest babies we’ve seen in 8 years! Christian and Karen are doing well and we’re just loving life!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CauGLVsxZNHQQ

I have a couple things to touch base with you about. I know there will be more things that get added to our list in the coming weeks as we gear up for the start of school, but this will do for now!

July 18 – First day of percussion and guard camp – As I mentioned at the end of the school year, there is a drum corps show this day at McKendree University in Lebanon, IL. This is the only drum corps show within 250 miles and is a great opportunity for our kids to watch groups of this caliber rehearse and work on their show. My original plan was to set this up as a field trip, including bus transportation, and arrange lunch and dinner, and get group tickets for the show. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time prior to the end of school to get this done and with our early babies, I just didn’t get it done!

I realize that many of our marching band kids are excited about getting the chance to see groups like this up close and personal. So, we are going to CANCEL our rehearsal for July 18 so kids can go watch different drum corps rehearse during the day. They will need to make their own arrangements for transportation, meals, tickets to the show, etc. I will be at various schools watching rehearsals as well, but not in a supervisory role as a Parkway School District employee due to the multiple rehearsal sites. The drum corps are rehearsing at the following schools:

Santa Clara Vanguard McKendree University – Lebanon, IL

Phantom Regiment Civic Memorial High School – Bethalto, IL

Blue Stars Wesclin High School – Trenton, IL

Cavaliers Alton High School – Alton, IL

Carolina Crown Highland High School – Highland, IL

Pioneer Mater Dei High School – Breese, IL

Cascades Edward Fulton/OTHS – O’Fallon, IL

Music City St. Clair High School – St. Clair, MO

As part of the paid ticket, Santa Clara Vanguard is also doing a “Live Learning Experience” clinic at McKendree at 3:00pm as well. For ticket information, check www.dci.org for availability. We will rehearse at 8:00am on Tuesday, July 19 and will continue as previously scheduled. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause!

Forms! There are some changes to the forms needed for band camp this year. I have attached the revised forms from our Activity Office.

Please let me know if you have any questions! I look forward to seeing all of you soon!

Ben