Regular Rehearsals Continue!
The regular marching rehearsal schedule is 7:00am-8:30am Monday through Friday. Please note one important exception below:
Monday, Oct 12: Stadium Rehearsal 5-9pm – note that there is no school this day.
*it is important that everyone arrives on time everyday. As a reminder, for every minute you are late = 1 lap and 10 points off of your participation grade. Also, tutoring is expected to be done in the afternoons so we can maximize our rehearsal time. With that being said, please pass your classes!
Chili’s Spirit Night
Band Spirit/Fundraising Night at Chilli’s TONIGHT!!!
Monday Sept. 21st
Come by anytime from 11:00 am – 11:00 pm
Experience the greatness of Chili’s, located at Coit and Campbell. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the band, so tell everyone you know to come eat at Chili’s, and be sure to mention the Golden Eagle Band!
This is a wonderful, no brainer way to raise money for the band program… you gotta eat!
**bring your receipt to class on Tuesday, Sept. 22nd and will do a drawing after school for $25 iTunes gift card**
Academic Eligibility
There are two weeks left in the first six weeks. As we approach the end of the first grading period, it seems a good time for a quick reminder on how grades affect eligibility for band.
The short version is this – pass ALL of your classes and you have nothing to worry about. You are the best and the brightest at RHS and it is our expectation that you’re acting as such in your classes. This means you shouldn’t be in jeopardy of failing a class.
Here’s the long version – if you fail a class, you fall into one of two situations:
Situation #1: You fail a UIL Exempt Class. The link below will take you to our band handbook; on page viii you will find a list of classes which are not affected by the TEA “no pass/no play” rule. If you fail one of these classes, it does not affect your eligibility status with band or other extracurriculars. That being said, failing any class is not okay and YOU NEED TO GET YOUR GRADES UP. WE’LL “SUPPORT” YOU IN THAT EFFORT RIGOROUSLY.
https://richardsonband.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/RHS-Band-Handbook-15-16.pdf
Situation #2: You fail a non-exempt/regular class. If you fail a class which is not listed on the attached list of classes, you will be academically ineligible to participate in any of the extracurricular elements (see below) of band until you regain your eligibility. You can only regain your eligibility in two ways. 1) By passing ALL of your non-exempt classes at the 3 week progress report or 2) By passing ALL of your non-exempt classes at the next 6 week grading period. If you meet criteria number 1, you can regain your eligibility after the 4th week (there is a one week “grace period” after the 3rd week progress report). If you don’t regain at the 3 week point, you have to wait until the next report card.
The elements of band effected by eligibility are: contests, parades and football games. Any in-eligible student may not participate with the band at any of these events. Ineligible students will still attend: M-F rehearsals, concerts, band classes.
Please note – we are watching eligibility closely and will begin swapping people in/out of marching spots based on how grades are looking in classes. If it looks like you may not pass, there is a high likelihood that you will be reassigned out of your marching spot in order to give the other person time to learn the spot before contest.
Pass-offs… want to try again?
Wind players can come and re-attempt movement I/school song pass-offs for any of the directors after school on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays before 5:30pm. We can’t guarantee availability every day (some days there are meetings, etc), but we’ll do our best to be in our offices between 4:10-5:30pm those days for the next few weeks. If you drop by, we’ll be happy to fire up the click track for you.
In the mean time, want to practice step offs with the click track?
The click tracks for Mvt. I and II are now posted in the student area in Charms. In order to log into Charms, visit https://www.charmsoffice.com/charms/plogin.asp. Your school code is “RichardsonHSB”, and your password for the student area is your ID number. You will be able to find the click track in the “Click Track” folder in the “Handouts & Files” section.
Note – the deadline for all re-passoff attempts to raise your grade is the end of the 1st six weeks. After this, we will continue to pull students out to pass-off material, but you won’t be able to raise your average.
All Girls (Winds/ Drumline)
There will be a quick meeting on Wednesday September 23rd from 4:15 pm – 4:45 pm. As we transition into full uniform this week Ms. Maldonado will be discussing how we will be doing our hair for games and competitions.
Jazz Auditions
Jazz auditions will be held on Wednesday, September 23rd @ Rockwall High School at 7:00 pm. Please remember to turn in your $12 entry fee to the safe by Friday, October 2nd.
Friday Morning Rehearsal / Pep Rally
The second pep rally of the year is this Friday and we will all be in the stadium again! Our schedule will be the same as our first pep rally. Please see details below:
7:00 am – 8:30 am: Marching Rehearsal on the Grid
8:30 am – 9:30 am: Break / Move to stadium (CHANGE INTO MARCHING SHOES/GRAB SHAKOS)
9:45 am – 10:45 am: Pep Rally
11:00 am – 12:00 pm: Marching Rehearsal in the stadium with Shakos and Plumes (band and Eaglettes will be blocked for 0-3 periods). Please check with your teachers for any work that will be missed in ADVANCE!
12:00 pm – 12:25 pm: Change / Go to 4th period or lunch
* rehearsals were approved by Mr. Bruner and are within the UIL 8 hour rule as the second rehearsal occurs during the school day.
We will rehearse with the Eaglettes after the pep rally. This is especially important to note because ALL woodwinds, brass and drumline students must remember to bring their flip folders stuffed with this week’s drill team tune (which happens to be Happy this week). Anyone who forgets his/her flip folder, drill team tune, or attire at this rehearsal will automatically fail inspection for this week, so make sure you remember!
You can always find the “drill team tune” for the week by going to the Official Band Calendar at www.richardsonband.org
Attire for Friday morning rehearsals is:
GEB Black Athletic Shorts
(EQ)librium shirt
Water bottles
RHS vs Pearce (HOME)
The second HOME football game of the year is coming up this Friday night. As always, full details can be found on the Official Band Calendar at www.richardsonband.org. Remember that there will be an after party once the game concludes!
When the bell rings to release school, dinner will be served in the Eagles Nest for those who signed up for the meal plan. Please note that this is only for those who signed up for the Football Game meal plan.
Important detail this week – FULL UNIFORM!!
Game Details
Drill Team Tune: Happy
Dinner Served: 4:10pm
Inspection: 5:45pm
Tailgate: 6:30pm
Kickoff: 7:30pm
Full Contest Uniform: marching shoes, black socks (mid calf length or higher), bibbers (uniform pants), GEB underarmor, jacket, baldric (sash), shako (hat).
IF YOU NEED MARCHING UNIFORM/CONCERT ITEMS, PLEASE PICK THEM UP ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22nd AFTER SCHOOL.
Guard Uniform: Contest costume
*failure to have the items mentioned above as well as not having your instrument, flip folder, lyre and FILLED GEB silver water bottle WITH WATER will result in failing inspection. As a reminder we do not talk during inspection lines.
Other reminders include:
No nail polish
No jewelry (earings, necklaces, rings, etc.)
No unnatural hair colors (blue, green, etc.)
Boys – clean shaven or trimmed facial hair
Girls – show hair (please attend meeting on Wednesday)
Parents – RHS will be selling RHS vs Pearce Rival T-Shirts all week!
March-a-thon
The March-a-thon is coming up THIS SATURDAY! Here are all the important details you need to know from the student/performer perspective. There will be separate emails coming out from our MAT Coordinator regarding the volunteers.
First of all – in order to be considered for all of the various contests, the cutoff point for all donations to be counted is Wednesday at 5:00pm. Any donation received after that point is extremely appreciated but won’t count toward the contests as it takes a TON of work from our volunteers to get everything tallied up in time. Make sure that you turn your money in with your donation sheet (and that the donation sheet has your name clearly written on it) to the band safe. If you just turn in an envelope of money – again that’s going to be extremely appreciated, but we have no idea to whom that money should be attributed.
Here are the various contest prizes:
Top 20: Ride in the “Party Limo” during MAT.
Top Grossing Section: Chooses a tune to add to our stand repertoire for the season.
All who get sponsors/donations will receive a coupon for 5 Free Wings @ Pluckers
Details for the day:
You will arrive dressed in the March-a-thon T-Shirt (which will be distributed in classes this week), GEB black athletic shorts, black ANKLE socks, and tennis shoes. DO NOT wear your marching shoes as they are not designed to take a 5K concrete beating. At inspection, you’ll be checked for the following:
Correct uniform (see above)
Flip folder
Lyre
Instrument (polished, working order, good reed, etc)
*bottled water will be provided throughout the day. You will NOT need to bring your GEB silver water bottles.
Inspection will be promptly at 8:15am. After inspection, we’ll line up in the parade block out by Dogwood and step off right at 9:00am. We perform the first leg of the MAT by marching over to Waterview, then back to the HS for a short break. The second leg takes us over to Cottonwood and then back to the HS. The 5K march should last from 9:00am to roughly 12:00p-12:30ish. After the march, we’ll put instruments away and enjoy some outstanding popsicles to celebrate the end of another successful March-a-thon! The link below provides more detailed information regarding the March-a-thon:
We anticipate that students will be ready for pickup by 12:45pm. We’ll keep everyone updated throughout the day via the GEB twitter feed. Follow us at RHSGEB!
Handbook Signature Pages
Don’t forget – handbook signature pages were due last Friday. Mr. McKinney is in the process of contacting folks for whom this has slipped through the cracks. Please either tear out the pages from the physical copies handed out in classes or go to www.richardsonband.org, mouse over “Forms and Downloads” and click on “Band Handbook” to download a copy. The forms we need are in the back of the handbook (where the roman numerals start) and are on pages “v” and “xvii”. They can either be emailed to Mr. McKinney at mark.mckinney@risd.org or turned in to the box outside his office.
Thank you,
Mr. Marquez