THE Houston Band
10 days to competition!
🎶 Notes From Mr. C
Hello Houston Band family,
In 10 days, we will hear parents shout, "THEY WERE BORN READY!" in response to a contest announcer saying, "Drum majors, is your band ready?" This is always a fun confidence boost for our young musicians, but the reality is that they have worked HARD this year getting our field show ready. We are so, so close. Please ensure that students are attending every school day, practice, and rehearsal ready to work. Let's have a GREAT first performance!
What a joy it was to have our middle school friends on campus last Saturday! Thank you so much to every parent that helped make our amazing mini camp and middle school night day run safely and on full stomachs. That was a long and rigorous day, but our students put in tons of work into our field show (which they had their first full run of yesterday!) and into the future of our program by interacting with our 7th & 8th grade friends.
Per the syllabus, marching competitions are 100% mandatory for all students, including alternates. Only students that communicated a conflict before we started camp and were given written approval are exempt.
As competition season ramps up, I want to make sure everyone is on the same page. Please carefully read all the announcements! See you all next Saturday.
Orchestra families that inadvertently were signed up for the band newsletter, it's great to have you here! That said, I totally understand not wanting to get constant band emails. You can scroll to the bottom of the email and hit "unsubscribe" to quit getting them--you won't hurt my feelings (much)! Trip updates will be sent in a separate email list moving forward.
With excitement and gratitude,
Mr. C
Universal Orlando Trip - Late Additions
An initial non-refundable deposit of $350 per person was required to sign up. You must have signed up, registered, and paid by Mon Sep 15, 2025 to be guaranteed a spot on the trip. That said, if there are open spots left, ETA sometimes will accept late additions. Please feel free to reach out to them to see if it's possible to join us on this trip!
Upcoming payments are:
October 15th, 2025 $350 per person
November 15th, 2025 $350 per person
December 15th, 2025 Final Balance ($348 per person)
There is optional trip insurance through ETA.
Trip cancellation insurance enables individuals to cancel their trip at any time due to a family or medical emergency and receive a full refund, or cancel for any other reason at least 48 hours prior to departure and receive a 70% refund. Trip insurance costs $160.
Third-Party Travel Agency Notice
As with many school trips (including all major trips that band and orchestra students have been on for years to places like Europe, Texas, Florida, and more), we are utilizing the services of a third party travel agent to set itineraries, take payments, and disburse materials. Generally, this is a better option to ensure safe, organized, exceptional educational travel experiences for our amazing students. In the same way we wouldn't want a travel agent teaching our students music, we don't want music teachers pretending to be travel agents. We leave it to the professionals!
If you have any issues with the vendor (Educational Travel Adventures), please try to resolve it with them. If you need assistance for any reason, please don't hesitate to reach out to Mr. Carpenter to see if a resolution can be found. That said:
This is a third party field trip through Educational Travel Adventures, which is not sponsored by or affiliated with the Germantown Municipal School District, Houston High School, or the band and orchestra booster programs.