July 22nd Update- New Calendar and Summer Camp Plans

Yesterday, the U.I.L. released new guidelines on the timeline of athletics and marching band activities this Fall. 5A and 6A high schools (FHS is 5A) must now wait until September 24th for football games to begin; and thus, that would be our first halftime performance, pending the release of our new football schedule (our first football game had been scheduled originally on August 28th). The new end to the regular season, as currently planned, would be as late as December 5th, with playoffs extending through December into January.

The UIL also released guidance that marching bands must wait until Sept. 7th to begin learning visual components (including drill) specific to their shows, if they are to be taken to UIL competition- previously were were able to begin learning our show drill as early as August 1st. As of today, bands ARE allowed to continue practicing marching skills and fundamentals before this date, and athletics are allowed to continue strength and conditioning drills.

Given the delayed calendar for the football/marching band season, the Frisco Band will now begin our summer marching band camp for the full organization on August 3rd. Color Guard and Percussion students will have activities next week (week of July 27th), to make up for some time they are unable to meet when directors are at staff development the following weeks.

Click here to see our revised Summer calendar. The remainder of the Fall calendar will return as soon as we are able. Specifics for families to prepare for summer camp will be sent out in the coming days.

We anticipate that many questions surrounding the nature of our planned activities will be answered through examination of the latest calendar. Several activities have been removed or re-scheduled, and several times have been altered in the interest of cutting back for student safety. Please familiarize yourself with the updates, then contact Mr. Simon if you have any additional questions!

While the situation is constantly evolving, we will be working to be as safe as possible:

• When we are outside for marching band with the whole Band at once, we are in the outdoor environment, which has been shown to be much less conducive to the spread of respiratory disease. Even though we'll be outside, we will still be implementing procedures to enforce physical distancing. The show drill will be written with larger intervals between students, and our fundamentals block will be more spaced-out than usual. Students will be spaced out when they are on the sidelines accessing their belongings.

• For any activities taking place inside (most notably for face-to-face class instruction later in the Fall), we’ll be spreading people out quite a bit more than usual- we will explore several options, such as separating brass and woodwinds in classes to be able to further distance between people, utilizing larger spaces for sectional work, and/or breaking larger sections up into smaller groups.

• We will, at all times, be following safety guidelines from FISD, the UIL, and the CDC.

Frisco ISD has put several comprehensive procedures in place, including protocols for masks and beyond. They are designed to minimize contact between students, and students and staff, while at school- FISD has provided them here.

While we cannot guarantee 100% protection from the spread of coronavirus, we will be working very, very hard to bring that risk to as low as possible. We hope that ultimately our families find these plans and procedures within an acceptable range of minimal risk, in order to be able to participate with the Band! Please contact Mr. Simon at simond@friscoisd.org with any questions.