SAYREVILLE – Sayreville School District administrators and Board of Education members are looking to ensure that newly-purchased instruments, equipment and supplies for the Sayreville War Memorial High School (SWMHS) Marching Band arrive in the district following delays.
The district received an additional $2.01 million in state aid for the 2018-19 school year, and board members allocated $100,000 of the additional state aid towards replacing marching band instruments in July. In August, the board approved the $81,426 purchase of band instruments, equipment and supplies from Washington Music Center, Music Den, Elefante Music, Music & Arts and K&S Music.
The status of the arrival of the instruments, equipment and supplies ordered in August was discussed during a board meeting on Oct. 16.
At the meeting, Business Administrator Erin Hill said the orders had all gone out and most of the items would arrive by the end of the month, but other items were not expected to be acquired until November, January 2019 and April 2019 at the latest.
Hill stated the delays were the result of ordering the items from the multiple vendors who were all new to the district. With paperwork required for each vendor, she said it took two weeks longer than expected to have the orders processed.
Sue Adams, president of the Band Parent Association, thanked the administration and the board for the purchase of the new instruments, but acknowledged frustration with the delays as the band’s current instruments have surpassed their life expectancy. She noted that during a recent competition, the band members received praise, but the instruments being used drew criticism.
“The judges praised our students, praised our show, praised our musicality,” Adams said. “And then they said, ‘Do you think you could borrow instruments from another school?’ It’s really embarrassing. Your kids are good, but what they’re playing on is just not cutting it. The only thing I can equate it to is our football team going to a championship game with a Nerf football and pillows strapped on their backs instead of padding.”
Nevertheless, Adams emphasized the band parents appreciated the administration’s and board’s efforts to acquire new instruments, equipment and supplies for the band.
“I’m here representing the band parents to express our deepest and sincerest gratitude for allocating funds to supply us with new instruments,” she said. “We really are appreciative. We thank you all for thinking of us and we look forward to coming and playing for you with our new instruments when we do get them.”
In turn, Superintendent of Schools Richard Labbe thanked the marching band for their hard work and accomplishments.
“We sincerely apologize for the delay,” Labbe said. “We want our band members to know how much we appreciate everything that they do. They’re amazing performers and they represent our district so impeccably. I have to remember the first year that I was here [2014]. They truly were that beautiful sound that came out of a lot of ugliness and I’ll never forget that. That’s why when we did receive the additional state aid, we knew that we needed to make a major investment in our band.
“It might have been a little too late because it was in August, but I know that this board and this administration are committed to continuing to provide our band with what it needs so that you never have to be in a situation where a judge says something like that to you,” he said. “I apologize if the instruments did not give you the advantage that you were expecting, but our band has been performing magnificently in all of their competitions. Our band is naturally and normally the top one or two bands in their group and regionally too.
“We thank our band members, our instructors, our coaches and of course, our incredibly supportive band parents for that.”