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Lack of signups, budget led to marching band cutBy Joel Stottrup Perhaps the scene of color guard member Kyle Thompson spread out on the pavement in his black-caped outfit as if dead last summer when the marching band used the Phantom of the Opera theme was an omen of things to come. After winding up the summer season with its annual ice cream social in Riverside Park, complete with the Thompson routine, the band hung up its uniforms. Now this summer neither Kyle nor or any other Princeton Marching Tiger is scheduled to put those uniforms back on and march down the street to carry on Princeton's long marching band tradition. The Princeton school board, after conferring with the district's band instructors, approved budget cuts on March 27 that included cutting the Marching Tigers. The school board, in trying to save as much as $461,000 for the next school year, had proposed at a previous meeting to eliminate fifth grade band and instrumental lessons until the ninth grade. Then when the board met on the 27th, it decided on the marching band cut to reverse the proposal of cutting instrumental lessons until ninth grade. Princeton High School band and Marching Tigers director Lee Peterson, meanwhile, had already seen something disturbing in March into early April. He saw during that signup period for what would have been this coming summer's marching band season only 26 students registering. Not all of those were instrument players, either, so Peterson knew he was in trouble for putting a marching band together. It's not just the total number of players that are important but also the fact that you can't just have "one flute and the rest drums," he said, explaining the need for a balance of instruments. "We saw either the music lessons in the middle school or the marching band being cut," Peterson said last week. "It's unfortunate for any one of them to go. - The last thing I want people to think that the director wanted to get rid of the marching band." When Peterson was told that a parent had talked about seeing if there might be a group in town interested in financing a marching band, he answered, "Even if there were no budget problems, the question would remain, ëCan we put out a marching band?' " For many years the band was run by a booster club that did fund-raising for all expenses, helping send the band on many trips across the country and throughout the state. Along the way the band brought home many trophies. Then the district eventually took over funding of the marching band's activities. It was common to find framed photos in businesses around town that were thank yous for having contributed a certain amount to the band. The photo would often show the band posed at one of the places where it had performed "It's a bummer," said trumpet player Abby Lingle, when she was asked last Friday for her reaction to the school board cutting the band. School board chairman Tom Meinz told the Union-Eagle that director Peterson had given a "real good shot" at keeping the marching band going after taking on the job a few years following a lull in interest in the band. But Meinz said a flagging registration for marching band is not unique to Princeton. "Many schools we have competed against have consolidated [their marching band] with different schools," said Meinz, whose daughter Kate, who graduated from PHS last year, had been a trumpet player for the Marching Tigers. Meinz noted that the high school marching band in St. Cloud consists of students from St. Cloud Apollo, Cathedral and Tech. "It's a trend," said Meinz. "A lot are competing for the time of kids working, going on trips and family." "That is too bad," said Randy Miskowic, a former band booster member who had two children in the marching band at one time. "It's been a long tradition." He added that it wasn't just a marching band but the personification of the city of Princeton in parades all over. It represented the town when it went on as many as 15 to 16 parades a year and people saw the name Princeton, said Miskowic. "I'm certainly disappointed to see it go," said school board member Phil Lingle. He agreed that it is a combination of the budget cuts and declining student interest, along with so many competing summer activities, that contributed to the cut. Besides daughter Abby having been in the marching band, Lingle's daughter Carrie also played flute in the band. A couple of student activities taking place this coming summer that will be competing for student time, said Lingle, are a trip by Spanish students to Spain and French students to France. Director Peterson did change the hours of the marching band practice to fit the schedules of those who work and shortened the marching band season to end it by July so there was more time for other things, Lingle noted. "It's disappointing but I don't disagree with the idea of focusing on the curriculum of the band in the schools and the lessons," Lingle said. Ron Moulton, who was director for the band from 1970 to 1997, was visiting in Princeton from his home in Texas last week and talked about the board's decision on the Marching Tigers. (Moulton was also director of the concert and jazz bands for many years.) People need to concentrate on the "positive aspects of the [band] program," Moulton suggested, noting the strength of the jazz bands and concert bands in the district. "I'd like to concentrate on the fact that the kids had a good experience that they can take with them the rest of their life." He noted that every once in awhile he hears from a former marching band member. Since he and his wife Pat moved to Texas, Ron has become a composer, arranger and player for worship time at Hill Country Bible Church and has started a band at a Christian school. Moulton continued to talk philosophically about the cutting of the Marching Tigers. "Nothing is forever," he said. "They might cut something now but it might come back, come back in a different form. Keep a positive attitude." That might be easier said than done, at least this year, for Jerry Whitcomb, commander of Woodcock-Herbst American Legion Post 216. The post will be hosting the district American Legion convention in early June and it will have a parade that organizers had hoped would have a local marching band. "I just think it's too bad we're going to lose the marching band," Whitcomb said. "It's disappointing our own band won't be there. We have sent requests out for about 10 bands." Whitcomb continued that the local American Legion post used to "really fund that band" before the school district took over funding. The Legion post purchased a big trailer for the marching band to haul instruments and one year bought its uniforms. Whitcomb noted that the June 7-11 Rum River Festival will also be without the Marching Tigers, as well as the Memorial Day ceremonies on May 28. The cadence tapping of the drum along the street leading up to and into Oak Knoll cemetery has been a long tradition in Princeton. Someone might still beat the cadence on a drum but high school kids in their Marching Tigers outfits will be gone during the march to the cemetery. "I'm going to miss it," said director Peterson. "The community is going to miss it. It was a sacrificial lamb." "I hope the marching band can be resuscitated at some point," Lingle said. "We don't know what the future holds. But the kids need to be the ones requesting its return. It will be real strange having no Princeton band in the parade. It's an unexpected turn of events." Princeton Union-Eagle |