Klarinet Archive - Posting 001253.txt from 1998/04

From: Jeff Morrow <jwmorro@-----.net>
Subj: Re: budget cutbacks
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 17:45:29 -0400

I do agree that the band is over looked when it is time to dish out the
money. I live in a small town that does not have the big field. We don't even
have enough money to get bleachers for the school so the band can't hold any
marching competicions. The football team and the rest of the sport teams get
money, but we just got them to pay for our transportation(school busses) for
competitions. We have had the same uniforms for the past fifteen years that we
origonially bought from a secoundary school that used them for probably for 10
years. During the marching band season I play the bass drum so I don't wear
them, but boy do they look bad besides the fact that they are tackey they don't
fit some of the members. So finally after years of fundraising we are getting
new uniforms(brand new) that the school has not donated one cent to and that we
raised $42,000 for. And you want to know what the football teams uniforms
look like, they are new almost every year and payed for by the school. I
really don't understand this whole thing, because we hardly get any money from
the school but we are the largest group(# of students) in the school! It just
is not fair:-(

Katie Morrow,
High School Freshman/Band Memder
-clarinet, tenor sax, marching bass drum

Fred Jacobowitz wrote:

> Jill,
> WHo pays for the football team's dinner, transportation, etc? If
> it's the school, you should threaten a lawsuit for favoritism. All the
> clubs should demand that they get just as much money from the budget as
> the team gets. That would really get those neanterthals on the school
> board's attention. Girls sports teams did it and won. Now in many
> places, the girls' teams are as well funded as the boys' teams. I'll bet
> there will aoways be plenty of boosters who will put up money to get the
> football team its little perks. In a public
> school, tax dollars are being spent. They should be spent equitably.
>
> Fred Jacobowitz
> Clarinet/Sax Instructor, Peabody Preparatory
>
> On Tue, 14 Apr 1998, Jill R. Exner wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > It's sad, isn't it? The same thing is happening here. Every year, we
> > band boosters have to struggle to raise more and more money because of
> > school board budget cuts. Last year, they decided they couldn't pay for
> > the trailer we use to transport our equipment to football games--so we
> > have to foot the $300.00 per trip bill. Of course, the football
> > team--and equipment is transported ( after the weekly dinner for the
> > team, of course). I'm getting scared about it. Now, on top of that,
> > we're beginning block scheduling next year, which I am not sure will help
> > things.
> >
> > Jill, Band booster Mom
> >