Amid the band’s competition season, Aliso Niguel High School has implemented a new program to support the extracurricular. The Booster Band program and club successfully stand testament to the community’s dedication towards the care for students and the school’s future, as it strives to create more parent involvement in the band.
The program aims to address various problems and challenges the school recognized in funding extracurriculars in recent years, especially in music and performing arts programs in schools. The involvement of the newly added Booster program and parents has allowed more active support than ever, both in volunteering and fundraising so the band is provided the necessary requirements to continue and strive on.
Ever since this program was implemented, although later than other schools in the area, there have been significant improvements to music at Aliso Niguel entirely. With money being rounded to provide money towards every branch of band; marching band, concert band, color guard, and more!
Not long ago, one of the first successful boosted schools after the events of the pandemic, seeing as schools around the country would struggle more than ever to provide the needed finances from now on, changing the perspective on the education system. In recent years, districts have seen the accomplishments made towards more involvement and funding in needed competition assistance and equipment, now country-wide, the needed boost is added.
The effects of organizing this program more thoroughly than in previous years are seen as gradual though steady improvement. ANHS has been able to upgrade needed equipment and instrument inventory, ensuring the quality is enhanced and suitable for new students.
The boosted program has also helped in the recruitment of band, while it focuses on more criteria than simply funding. Parents also organize, manage, support, and create bonds with students to grow and ensure demands. Alongside this, they construct more outside events for students outside of band to enjoy, as well as aid band similarly to how parents help.
Mr. Ma, band director of ANHS who teaches marching band, color guard, wind ensemble, and concert band explains, “They’re all parents of students in the band and they pretty much help us run and fund the program because the school doesn’t really give us the finding that we need to be able to run the program.”
“Our program is roughly about $100,000 a year just to run everything from Fall through Spring. We need parent boosters to help us in making sure our students get fed, they get their uniforms, they get all the equipment they need, they pay for our shows, and they pay for the instructors that we bring in.”
Without the assistance and needed help of parent boosters, the band in its entirety at ANHS would not be provided the needed payments and donations towards any of these, seeing fundraisers do not bring as much money as the school would like to towards the extracurricular. Most importantly, all those helping and making the band as great as they are today are thanks to the payments and hires given to the instructors.
