Dear Shadow Mountain Band and Color Guard Families,

Welcome to the start of an incredible new season! Whether your child is a returning veteran or taking the next step in their musical journey, we are so thrilled to welcome you to the Marching Band family.

As we look to build on our incredible momentum and continue our tradition of success this upcoming year, we are looking for students who have some prior musical or performance experience to help take our ensemble to the next level. Our band members are some of the most kind, hardworking, and talented students on campus. By joining us, your child will instantly gain a supportive community, make lifelong friends, and learn invaluable leadership and teamwork skills that will serve them long after graduation.

(Note: For our Color Guard section, we still love welcoming students with dance, gymnastics, or rhythm backgrounds, so please encourage them to check us out!)

Meet Our Incredible Team

We are incredibly fortunate to have a highly experienced, passionate staff leading our marching band and color guard this year. We encourage you to visit our website to read bios and get to know the team.

Behind every great band is an amazing network of families. Our booster community works tirelessly to ensure our students have everything they need to succeed. Together, we achieved so much last year, and we are so excited to make this upcoming school year our most memorable and successful one yet!

Important Next Steps: Items & Schedule

To help everyone prepare, we’ve broken down the essential details for the upcoming season into two key areas: Required Items and the Season Schedule, located at the bottom of this message and on our website.

We want to be completely open about the financial side of high school activities. While we all wish these programs could be entirely free, there are real costs involved. Please know that we are fully committed to ensuring that financial hurdles never stand in the way of a student participating. We Are Here to Help: Our Boosters, and our students, fundraise year-round to provide financial assistance to families who need it.

Plan Ahead: We are sharing the due dates section with you early so everyone has plenty of time to plan and avoid being overwhelmed by payments in August.

Reach Out: If you need assistance with Band Camp or fees, please reach out to the Boosters as soon as possible. All inquiries are kept completely confidential. Please visit the PAYMENTS tab to find a financial hardship form.

Thank you so much for your incredible support, energy, and dedication to our students. Through open communication and working together, we know this is going to be another fantastic, high-achieving year!

Warmly,

Theresa Morgan

ITEMS

Participation Fee $100 This is a district-wide fee, of which $72 helps pay for transportation and the remaining $28 goes toward registration fees for events. This fee is paid to the Bookstore and you may use the AZ Tax Credit to pay it if you want to. Our principal, Heidi Banuelos, is the only person who can waive this fee, so contact her if you need to request that.

The following fees CANNOT be paid for with a tax credit donation:

Region Audition Fee: $30 one time for any and all students.

This payment should be cash or check made payable to Shadow Mountain Band Boosters.

Class Fees: $15 per class per semester This is a district-wide fee for certain electives

Band/Orchestra Students total would be $45 (Fall Concert Band + Fall Marching Band + Spring Concert Band) Color Guard Students total would be $15 (Fall “Band Auxiliary Corps”)

Required Supplies - see Band Booster letter for additional payment information

Long Black Socks
Black Marching Band Shoes
Pep Assembly Uniform (show/performing arts shirt)
Color Guard Uniform and Shoes for Color Guard Students

DUE DATES

September 26 Participation Fee $100

September 26 Class Fees $45 for Band or $15 for Color Guard

August 31 Booster Student Payment: $250 (not tax credit) to the Band Boosters

August 31: All required supplies (see Band Booster letter for details)

November 1: Region Audition Fee $30

Where does the money go?

Shadow Mountain High School has a central financial management system called the “Bookstore.” The band program has several different accounts within the Bookstore. Below is an explanation of those accounts and examples of how the money may be used.

Participation Fee Account: Of the $100, $72 of it goes to the school district to cover transportation, instrument repair, uniforms, coach/staff addenda, etc. The remaining $28 goes into our Class Fee account.

Class Fee Account: This money is used to purchase sheet music and other educational supplies.

Band Club Account: This is money that is raised by the band students only, by way of the student-elected band council. The band council students can vote to use this money for things like awards, band banquet, or whatever they feel the band needs.

TAX CREDIT Donations Account: The Arizona Tax Credit program is a huge source of income for the band. Any Arizona resident, regardless of their relationship to our students, can donate up to $200 per single tax return or up to $400 per joint tax return and receive all of the money back in the form of a Tax Credit. We can use this money to pay for instructors, guest composers and clinicians, instruments, music, and trips, such as band camp. We CANNOT use this money for anything that will eventually belong to a student permanently, such as the summer uniform and other expendables.

Gifts and Donations Account: Anyone can make a non-tax credit gift/donation at any time and this money may be used for anything we need.

Musical Ensemble Boosters: Our parent/volunteer organization, the Boosters, is a non-profit (501c3), completely separate from the school Bookstore and Ms. Morgan. The Boosters have their own bank account and they work very hard to raise funds to help support the music program throughout the year. When your child enrolls in Band, Orchestra, or Color Guard, you become a Booster. Welcome!

Fundraising Opportunities

There are numerous fundraisers throughout the year. Fundraising coupled with the use of the Tax Credit program can help make Band and Color Guard very affordable.

Band Calendar and Events:

All of our calendar events are located on the ALL PARENTS RESOURCES page on the website and the band app. We have been using the band app recently to stay in contact with each other, and parents are welcome to join. I do plan to move to ParentSquare in the future, but at this moment, we are using the band app for mobile communication.