Budget Project Rationale
I chose to spend $1,500 on new music because the top two bands (Wind Ensemble and
Symphonic Band) are attending the Concert-Sightreading Contest this year. We decided to wait
another year for our Concert Band to attend because the students are mostly freshmen and we are
working hard to help make them more successful at reading music and sightreading. So, we are
buying six UIL pieces. We are also buying some sightreading pieces to better prepare our
students for that portion of the contest. The percussion section will be performing in the TSSEC
this year, and will need new music for that. We also have three concerts coming up this year, so
we will be buying ten pieces of music overall for all three bands.
We are hiring a color guard teacher by the hour for our fall marching season. It will last
14 weeks from late July through early November, and they will be paid $16/hour for five-hour
days, four days a week (which includes competition days). We will also have two master class
teachers on our campus in the Spring to work with students on UIL music, and with the concert
band’s music to strengthen their abilities for next year’s contest. They will be on campus for four
hours at $35/hour. We plan on having band director friends come out to hear our ensembles at
various times during the year. They will be giving us tips on how to improve and better prepare
for UIL. The battery technician will be working with us for 14 weeks in the fall at $14/hour, five-
hour days, and three days a week (including competition days).
Since our marching uniforms are outdated and haven’t been cleaned in two years, they
will be dry-cleaned over the winter break. We have 150 uniforms and the cost is $75/uniform.
We also need several instrument repairs done. There is a concert tuba, French horn, bassoon, two
clarinets, and a tenor saxophone that need repairs done to them.
We need to buy a new marching mellophone, so we decided to go with a Yamaha at
$1,608. We are also replacing a marching baritone, and the new one is a Yamaha at $2,249, both
found on the Woodwind & Brasswind website. Since our percussion equipment is getting old,
and the marimbas we have now have damage to the frame and resonators, we decided to buy a
new Adams 4.3-octave marimba from Lone Star Percussion, at $2,895. This will be perfect for
both indoor and outdoor needs. Also, we need a new glockenspiel for marching band (also using
indoors) and we found one with a rolling stand on Lone Star Percussion for $1,350. Our last new
percussion purchase is a 3.5-octave xylophone. Our current xylophone has a fair amount of
damage to the frame from pushing it to every marching band rehearsal and back into the band
hall (and loading/unloading from our truck), and the cost of the new xylophone is around $1,550.
Finally, we needed to buy eight pairs of snare sticks, four pairs of tenor sticks, and five pairs of
bass mallets for the new season, along with white stick tape ($12) and a new drum key ($8) all
on Lone Star Percussion’s website.
