Fairview High School (FHS) requires students to enroll in marching band as a prerequisite to participating in all other bands. Marching band at FHS entails a heavy commitment, including:

• Two weeks of full-day practice (40 hours/week) in the summer before school starts.

• An average out-of-school practice/performance commitment of fifteen hours per week for ten weeks. (This is the equivalent of adding an extra high school class and requires attendance evenings, sometimes late into the night.) This demand is very disruptive to academic work, meals, and sleep.

• A financial contribution of $600 dollars.

• Signing onerous marching band contracts in the summer before 9^th Grade begins, before new students are aware of what they are committing to, and before they know what their first-year course load will be like.

For some students, marching band is a beloved and rewarding activity, and they would choose it even if it were offered as an extracurricular activity or a stand-alone course.  For others, it is a requirement they are forced to endure to access other band education at FHS, participating in marching band to the detriment of their schoolwork and well-being. Many others who enjoyed playing instruments in middle school give up school band education. Some students stop music education altogether.

We repeatedly asked the school and the school district for the pedagogical justification for the marching band prerequisite at FHS and received no clear response. At the school level, we were told it had been this way for a long time, so there must be a reason. There is no evidence that the specific skills and learning associated with marching band are indispensable for students to succeed in other band offerings at FHS.

The existing written policy for exemptions to the marching band prerequisite lists examples of conflicts that might qualify, such as participating in “sanctioned fall sports” (football, basketball, etc.). Still, exemptions are entirely at the subjective discretion of the FHS band director, are rarely granted, and are often summarily denied. The list of examples for possible exemptions is not exclusive but is silent on the issues of:

• Health or (dis)ability.

• Financial challenges, e.g., a student must work or provide childcare to help their family after school.

• Students who cannot add the marching band commitment to a heavy course load.

• Situations in which marching band conflicts with other school/extracurricular/family activities.

• Students who wish to play a band instrument (e.g., in jazz band) but have no interest in marching band at all.

Some parents can afford to enroll their teens in private music academies and pay for regular private lessons, but most high school-level music ensembles in the Boulder area only accept participants enrolled in their school music programs. Unless a FHS music student participates in marching band, they are excluded from these local ensembles.

A high school band director in a different Colorado high school reported that eliminating their marching band prerequisite caused their marching band enrollment to contract a little bit, but more importantly, it resulted in more students participating in music at the school overall than before! This is our goal at FHS – music for everyone!

According to the Fairview band director, BVSD currently covers only 1% of the band program budget; the remaining 99% is raised through fundraising by parents/students/staff who are very committed to the marching band program. If marching band enrollment contracts a bit, so will their overhead, but more students participating in music at FHS may result in greater overall funding.

BVSD is the decision-maker on this issue. The district recently took control of the FHS marching band prerequisite issue. This opens up the possibility for real change by BVSD. Prior attempts to eliminate the marching band prerequisite through advocacy at the FHS level were unsuccessful.

We are FHS parents whose teens love to play their musical instruments but cannot, or choose not, to participate in marching band. We believe in music for everyone! Access to music education is an equity issue, and BVSD must change policy from a “marching band first” approach to a music for everyone approach. We support music education for all in a way that respects the diverse needs and interests of the entire FHS student body.

Write to Neil Anderson, Executive Director of the BVSD Southwest Network, and each of the members of the BVSD school board. Their emails are listed below!

Let them know that you support eliminating the marching band prerequisite at FHS and share any personal experiences you have that support this initiative. It’s critical that these officials hear the personal stories of students who have been denied access to band education or otherwise harmed by the marching band prerequisite!

In addition to sharing your personal experiences, feel free to raise the issues of equity, inclusion, and district policy in your letter. Here are a few additional issues you can raise in your emails:

• The time commitment expected for marching band students; 8-20 hours of out-of-school commitment each week.

• Marching band at Fairview costs $600 dollars, more than any other academic class fee.

• The lack of objective standards for issuing exemptions to the marching band prerequisite, the lack of an appeal process for the marching band director's subjective decisions regarding granting exemptions, and the lack of policies ensuring student exemptions for the following:

  1. • • Health or (dis)ability issues.

• • • Financial challenges, e.g., a student must work or provide childcare to help their family after school.

    • Situations in which the marching band commitment conflicts with a heavy course load.

    • Situations in which marching band conflicts with other school/extracurricular/family activities.

    • Situations in which a student wants to play a band instrument (e.g., in jazz band) but has no interest in marching band at all.

• There is no evidence that the specific skills and learning associated with marching band are indispensable for students who wish to succeed in other bands at FHS.

• The marching band prerequisite places administrative consistency and the interests of the marching band director ahead of the best interests of all FHS music students.

• Some students drop out of music education entirely due to the FHS marching band prerequisite.