EHS Band Supporters Ask For Help

Easley High School band officials, parents and supporters want the school board to allocate proceeds from the sale of the former EHS band practice field to the band program itself.

Several people spoke before the board on the matter Monday night, stating the band program is in dire need of funds and support.

Beth Patterson read a letter from her father, Ozie Garrett, one of the men who originally sold the district the land in 1977 that became the band practice field on Pendleton Street.  

“I’ve had the opportunity to see first hand all of the hard work that the band boosters and many individual band parents have contributed to keep the field prepped and ready for the band to use for their practice sessions,” Garrett wrote.

Garrett urged the district to give the band program some, if not all, of the proceeds from the sale of that land.

“This type of financial support from the school district could help ensure the band’s success for many years to come,” Garrett wrote.

Patrick Mainieri, band director at both EHS and Gettys Middle School, agreed. 

“The students of Easley High School are using instruments owned by the district that are in such disrepair they cannot play in tune,” he said. “The repair bills on these instruments have continued to grow year after year. A high percentage of the district allocated funds are going straight to repair instruments that in dire need of replacing.”

At one time, the band could rely on matching funds from the school district, Mainieri said.

“The EHS Band Booster Club would often budget a significant amount of money toward purchasing new instruments, with the knowledge of the school district matching those funds, allowing for more expensive instruments that are not able to purchased by our families, “ Mainieri said. “Unfortunately, those funds stopped being available during the first round of budget cuts.”

The Easley High School band also had access to a $40,000 pot allocated for use by the four high school band programs on a rotating basis, he said.

That pot was earmarked for new uniform purchases, and band directors were told that the fund would allow for the purchase new band instruments four years later.

“Since the average use of a band uniform is 8-10 years, this plan was a great way to ensure our uniform and instrument assets were being updated and maintained,” Mainieri said. “However, the $40,000 rotating fund was ceased during the budget cuts of 2009.”

The potential sale of the band practice field offers “new hope that EHS will be able to replaced and update its aged instruments,” he said.

The average lifespan of a high school band instrument is 6-8 years, but that can be extended to 10 years through properly yearly maintenance, Mainieri said. 

“Due to extreme budget cuts, we have not been able to allocate funds to proper yearly maintenance, due to other more essential financial needs “ he said. “We have resorted to waiting until the last possible moment to repair an instrument, usually when a student brings it to us broken. There has been no preventative maintenance done to district instruments at Easley High School since the summer of 2008.”

The district instruments in need of replacement are entering their fifteenth year of use, far beyond their life expectancy, Mainieri said.

“If you think about asking one of our students to use a computer programmed in 1997, with minimal updates, missing keys from the keyboard, having scratches on the screen and a hole in the hard drive, you will understand our frustrations,” he said. “If funds are not allocated from the sale of the old band field, I urge the district to take the steps necessary to update and maintain our district-owned instruments.” 

Kristen Gill, Director of Bands at Easley High School, brought students with her as she addressed the board. Each student bore an instrument in need of repair or replacement.

“Our biggest need is in replacing the majority of the marching equipment and instruments,” Gill said. “These instruments are used in intense weather, including high heat, rain and even sleet during the school year.”

Many instruments are being held together by duct tape, she said.

The purchase of road cases would help protect the instruments in transit.

The band’s current truck is 20 years old and the carburetor has been replaced four times in six years, Gill said.

She gave the board a list of band program needs.

“We have been able to make last minute repairs to most of these instruments, but there’s only so much we can do with 10 or 15-year old instruments,” Gill said. “The last thing we want to do is tell a student they cannot play a certain instrument, because we don’t have one in working condition.”  

Trustee Ben Trotter moved to send the issue to committee, with a report made back to the full board during their October meeting. 

Board Chairman Alex Saitta said he couldn’t support earmarking proceeds from a land sale to one area, school or group.

“When you start to earmark funds like this, if you do it one time, you’ll have to do it every time,” he said. “It becomes an accounting nightmare to give earmarks back to the places where this money comes from.

“Bruce Field in Pickens, the field was sold for $200,000,” Saitta said. “That football program doesn’t have a claim on that $200,000. The money comes in and is used for the most important need at the time. 

Thanks in part to that sale, the district has “a bit of a surplus,” he said.

“That will go into the general fund, and likely, that money will be spent in other places in the county,” Saitta said. “Edwards (Middle School) needs a roof.” 

Trotter said he believed the Band Booster Club originally bought the land.

“School tax money didn’t buy that land,” Trotter said. “If it was bought with taxpayer money, school district money, that’d be one thing. But it was bought with booster money. We can’t take that away from the boosters and give it to everybody else. They need $252,110.88. That land will not bring it, but it will be a start. Are we going to come up with this kind of money and give it to them?” 

Saitta said the old band was not for sale, because Building Program Director Bob Folkman needed the land for staging equipment during the conversion of the old EHS site to a new middle school.

But Folkman said the land wasn’t being used for staging.

“Then let’s put it up for sale,” Saitta said. “I’m all for selling properties.”

The board approved 5-1 sending the boosters’ funding request to committee 5-1, with Saitta opposing.