Germantown School Board approves summer band program

The summer band program will return this summer, which the Germantown School Board unanimously decided at a meeting Tuesday night.

About 50 people were in attendance to see what the board would decide after a heated debate at the May 19 school board meeting that left the question of whether the band program should be considered extracurricular or co-curricular unanswered. The summer program will return as a co-curricular offering with certain stipulations that clarify it as a summer class.

"It’s helping us clarify the program based on changes that have happened in terms of what is aidable and not," said Superintendent Sue Borden. "So, when we’re putting out publications, when we’re enrolling students, we’re all using the same language from the band instructors, to the principals and the district office."

The Wall of Sound Clinic is an extension of curriculum offered during first semester. Students in the Wall of Sound are the same students enrolled in Wind Symphony in the fall. Because of an unsafe decibel level in the high school band room when the students move from the outside to the inside in fall, the program has been limited to 100 students.

The board voted to implement prerequisites, eliminating auditions, in order for students to be in the summer program. Borden said those prerequisites still have to be decided, but will help determine the number of students.

"That’s something that we will have to work with the band instructors on and we will also work with the middle school band instructors," she said.