You are not alone. We started the fall with a month of virtual. We started this semester with a month of virtual (for preemptive reasons...not because of a "super spreader" issue).

I will have to start my 6th graders completely over from Line 1 when we start back in person on Monday. During the fall term, once we started in person, the 6th grade was quarantined three separate times for a total of 6 weeks. 75% of the parents refuse to have their kids participate in virtual learning...their "logic" being is that it's really a vacation, not a safety measure to allow learning to continue. When I explain to the kids that 2 quarter notes equal 1 half note (1+1=2)...the response I get is "I wanna quit."

JH & HS are for the most part better as far as comprehension...but kids are allowed to go back and forth between virtual learning, and in person *at will*. Once the kid goes virtual however, they go "on vacation", and good luck getting anything from them. In many cases when a kid comes back to in person, they last about a week, and then go back to virtual. I have yet to have the same HS band in rehearsal twice, and while they are decent players, this type of inconsistency is detrimental to their overall playing. Just think how fun it was teaching drill this fall! While I have the support of my JH/HS principal, when I told the superintendent that I wasn't taking the band to marching contest, he looked at me as if I walked into his office and peed on his desk. Fortunately, since C/SR is in late April, and I have enough kids showing up in person consistently where I can take advantage of the change in UIL rules this year...go non-varsity and play super easy (we're 2A), and should still be respectable.

In the short time I've been here, ratings have gone up. However I haven't been happy here for other reasons...and, to be honest, I've spent the last 2 years slamming my head against the wall and all I really have to show for it is a bad headache. Yes the ratings have improved, but numbers have gone down, and the town is more interested in "counting uniforms" than anything else (they're giving the FB coach a hard time because we had the smallest HS FB team in numbers in 25 years...even though we won district this fall). In the 95 year history of the school, the band has earned four 1s in marching, and 1 Sweepstakes. I have been sending out resumes and applications already...but I am *almost* at the point that I would rather resign without another position lined up and risk unemployment than be here next year.