Sept. 15th-Sept.21st 2025

Monday - 4:00-5:30

Tuesday - Rehearsal 3:15 - 6:00

Wednesday - Playing test over closer grades frozen, Front Ensemble Rehearsal 4:00-5:30

Thursday - Rehearsal 3:15 - 6:00

Friday - Football vs. Milan 5:45 dressed outside band room.

This week we will continue our after-school rehearsals. These are mandatory and will be counted in the grade book. Make sure if you have a non-emergency appointment that it takes place outside of rehearsal or class time. It is very important that we have everyone at rehearsals for the full time to maximize our rehearsals. At this point, we are down to hours until the beginning of the season. 

For each after-school rehearsal you will need specific things. Below is a list of the items you need at EVERY REHEARSAL:

·                     Instrument

·                     Dot book

·                     Dot sheet

·                     Music

·                     Pencil

·                     Red Rehearsal shirt Tuesday/Blue Rehearsal shirt Thursday

·                     Red drinking cooler

·                     Tennis shoes (hey dudes, crocks, boots, hiking books, converse, etc do not count as tennis shoes.)

·                     Great attitude ready to give 110% every rehearsal!!!

Playing test over closer. All playing test grades are frozen, if you have not passed you need to make it up. Playing/memorization tests are counted as just that, a test. Each student is required to come into one of the offices and perform their music for myself, Mr. Leslie, or Mr. Tate. After all tests are taken, I will post grades for the students to see if they passed or not. If the student did not pass, they have exactly 1 week from the time the grade is posted to retake the test for a higher grade. If the student does not make the test up within that week, the grade will stay and not be changed. Each student is REQUIRED to pass the memorization tests to be able to march. If they do not pass then they will stand on the sideline during performances.

ALL STUDENTS are to be ON TIME for all call times. Please make plans in advance to have students on time. Contact Mr. Agee if there is an issue. 

This will be our first time in uniform. It is very important that everyone has everything. Your child is required to have LONG SOLID BLACK SOCKS at all times for uniform. If they do not have them, they will not march. They will also need to purchase gloves from Mr. Leslie for $5. If they have long hair, it must be put up inside their hat. NO JEWELRY except their band penny can be worn at all. Hair must be natural hair colors. 

Saturday we will be taking buses to and from the South Gibson competition. If your student will be riding home with someone or with you after the contest from South Gibson, they must turn in ride home forms. These are due every Thursday before a contest. I will NOT take them emailed to me. Please fill it out and send it with your student to school. At 8am on Friday morning I will be making the ride home list and will not accept any new forms after that. If your student fails to turn one in and then requests to ride home,  understand that will be the last time they can do that for this school year. Forms are required by our district for student safety. Ride home forms are located on the front table in the band room or on our website. Do not turn in more than the one due that week. I will not keep up with weeks' worth of ride home forms. 

Each student is required to be at all performances. If they miss a performance, their chance of passing the semester is in great jeopardy. Please consult the handbook for consequences. 

Students are expected to maintain a C average in all of their classes to continue in performances. Make sure that you are staying on top of your grades. Some of you are already falling below this line. If you do not fix this by Friday you will be standing on the side lines.  

We have a great need this semester as we have a student who lives in Rutherford who will need a ride home from rehearsals and to and from ball games and some contests. If you are willing to give this student a ride, please email me at ageej@gcssd.org. 

Tumblers and Cheesecake fundraisers are running now. Tumblers are due Sep. 21st cheesecakes will end the 22nd. These fundraisers are very important as they are what we use to pay our drivers and our staff for the year. If we do not raise the funds, then we will NOT be traveling on buses at all. The tumbler that says Yorkville can be sold for Kenton as well!  

PARENTS WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!! If we do not have volunteers, then it is hard for the band to function. If you have an issue and would like to speak with me privately about it please do!

I am missing band fee payments from many students. I will be posting debt list on the window today so that students can take a picture of theirs to send home. Make sure we are getting these paid so that we can pay our bills. 

We are missing some students in the Disney sign up. Please get signed up asap. We must have a minimum of performers to be able to march. 

Important Dates:

Sep. 19 - Football vs. Milan Call time 5:45 in full uniform

Sep. 20 - South Gibson Hornet Invitational. Rehearsal at 9:30am Performance at 4:45pm

Sep. 26 - Football vs. Huntingdon Call time 5:45 in full uniform

Sep. 27 - Union City Invitational TBD

Disney information: Registration ends February 6, but we ask that you register early to allow us to plan accordingly. Once you register, the website will give you a timeline of when certain amounts should be paid as well as a deadline for when full payment must be completed.  If you have family members who want to go with us, please forward this email and information to them. 

1.                  Once clicking the link below, select “Register now” to proceed.  You will have to create an account with your email and create a password for the portal.  (In some cases, school domain emails may be restricted, please use a Gmail or other email.)  You will then receive an email to verify your account before you can continue (Sometimes it may be in your spam folder).   

2.                  Everyone participating on the trip must register with the portal.  For anyone under 18 years of age, a parent or guardian must complete the registration on their behalf.  Multiple people from the same family on the same trip can register together so they have a single log-in.  (i.e. a dad chaperoning on a trip with their child or both parents with a child on the same trip).  You still register each person and have to select the packages each one is doing and complete all the information required for each participant. Everyone registers under the student cost-all cost the same.

3.                  Complete all the required information necessary.  (personal data, emergency data, etc.)

4.                  Choose the applicable package for the trip of the person you are registering.

5.                  Choose an insurance option: Enhanced, Standard or Decline.  You must choose one of the 3 to complete your registration.  The insurance options will be shown as Enhanced Coverage, Standard Coverage, or Decline.  It is encouraged to select and purchase insurance to protect your trip.  If purchasing the Enhanced Coverage, you must purchase within 20 days of registration and deposit.  Following insurance options, you will continue to the page for setting up your credit card or ACH Transaction options for payment.  If you are not selecting insurance, there will be an option to decline and proceed to the payment arrangements.

6.                  While registering, members will get to the point of completing their info and selecting insurance and a screen is indicating you are almost complete, you just need to “pay the deposit.”  The portals have been set up to combine the trip deposit and the insurance together as the ‘deposit.’  The portal has been set-up with the required deposit amount due at registration and the payment dates for additional payments.

7.                  The portal will show a screen where the total trip cost is displayed with the insurance amount with a ‘proceed to payment’ option.  This is not the payment selection.  When you proceed to make the payment, the next screen is where you enter your payment method (credit card or ACH) and then the last screen will show ‘Select payment’ options of paying balance, paying deposit or specific amount.  The deposit due amount should reflect the amount for the trip deposit and insurance.  You can select any of the three options based on your payment amount you desire to pay.  You are required to agree to and sign all required documents.

https://usafest.grcoll.co/v2/go/gchsbandorlando26

Once you have completed the steps listed, your registration is complete!  You will receive updates or additional information required for the trip to the email used in the registration process.  Please Note: You may select Autopay to avoid having to login and make additional payments.  You will receive reminders of the upcoming payment, and that the autopay will process the payment on the scheduled date.  (please note: ** All refund requests/cancellations will incur a minimum 4% reduction in possible refunds - Covers payment processing fees **)

For now, if you are registering a participating band member, you can either register them separately or just add them as a participant in your registration.  Mr. Agee said that can be adjusted later.  Remember, you will put them in a quad room and they cannot stay with parents since this is a field trip