Dear parents and students, 

I am incredibly excited to announce that I have been named as the new Instrumental Music Instructor.  I finally graduated middle school!  

There are a lot of loose ends that we need to deal with and some new things that we are going to roll out. 

1. Marching band begins next Tuesday, July 8^th.  We will have that rehearsal and the next day to confirm membership in the marching band.  If your child will not be at those rehearsals please make sure both their section leader and I know about their intent to join.
2. There are several items that students need to turn in to confirm membership in the marching band.  All 3 of these may be turned in using the same envelope to the band office.  Please make sure that the envelope has the student’s name on the outside.
   1. Students need to turn in a Marching Band medical form by the end of rehearsal on Wednesday, 7/9.  The medical form can be found on this web page: http://www.beavercreek.k12.oh.us/page/1007
   2. The first band payment is also due on Wednesday 7/9.  Information regarding that is available at this link http://www.beavercreek.k12.oh.us/page/1005.  Please make sure that all payments are turned in with a payment form (on the web page) in a sealed envelope with the students name on the outside.  Currently the credit card web-payment is disabled, but we will be introducing a new way to pay online in the very near future.
   3. We need a copy of your child’s last report card to confirm their eligibility to participate in marching band.  School policy states that a student who had two F’s during last quarter (not including exam grades) or have lower than a 1.5 GPA during last quarter are not permitted to participate in after school activities. 
3.  We would love to have each of you fill out this survey regarding volunteering for the BMPA.  Please note that you are not signing up to volunteer by taking this survey, you are only letting us know what you may be willing to help with.  With our rapidly growing band program, we need lots of volunteers.  http://www.beavercreek.k12.oh.us//cms/module/selectsurvey/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=949
4. We will be using new (to us) software for parent communication, financial management, inventory management and many other aspects that are involved in managing a band program.  This web-based application has been used for years by many band programs all over the country.  I am extremely confident that once we get past the initial learning curve, you will find it to be exceptionally helpful.  Be on the look-out for information regarding “Charms”. 
5. Finally, concert band seating will be released somewhere around 7/28.  We have decided to go to 5 concert bands for the 14-15 school year.  We have lots of work to do on this before it is ready to be posted.  Once we finalize the details, we will announce results.

It is going to be an amazing year!  Bring on “The Stones”!

Matt Frost
BHS Bands