It's very, very difficult for inner-city BDs to get out of the inner city once they've landed there. You get, for lack of a better word, "typecast" there.

It's possible - I know several who have done it. But I don't know many HS directors who have done it successfully.

What I've seen work is as follows: Work a few years as a HBD in a HS, then move to a MS in the same district, build them up and get a few 1s, and then you can write your ticket out.

I've also seen plenty of HS HBD move from one inner city school to another, sometimes in the same district, sometimes in others.

But the biggest "way out" is simple. Networking. You have to know someone who is willing to take a risk on you as a director, since you won't have the "skins on the wall" of first divisions.

Start making friends at region meetings, region judging, and at TMEA. It's all about who you know. No one's reinventing the wheel with new band knowledge. There's not a brand new way to play a flute. It's about how well you can teach it - and who knows how well you know you can teach it.