Our motto for this season has been, "We'll just play it be ear and see what happens." Goodness, I am thankful for the rain, but it has certainly made things tough. Here are some updated details for the next couple of days.

Friday - Homecoming (Take 2)
I am just hoping we get to march the show. As of right now, the chance of rain tomorrow night has decreased. Here is the schedule for tomorrow night:
5:45 p.m. - Call time at the band room. We will be in full uniform. HOWEVER, casual uniform will need to be available just in case!
6:30 p.m. - Homecoming coronation
7:00 p.m. - Kick-off

Saturday - Beggs Marching Contest
7:45 a.m.- Load trailer. 
10:15 a.m. - Warm-up
10:45 a.m. - Performance
1:00 p.m. - Awards (Drum Majors only in uniform)
3:00 p.m. - Arrive in Perkins

*There is an entry fee for spectators at this contest. I believe it is $5. Students/Directors/Drivers will receive a wristband which will allow them to come and go from the competition at no charge.

*Students will be fed lunch by the Band Boosters/parents. I'm sure lots of help will be needed with this!

After contest on Saturday, uniforms will once again need to be dry cleaned at Duffy's. They will need to be taken at the beginning of next week and returned back to the band room after Fall Break.

It has been a CRAZY marching season. In all my years of teaching, we have never dealt with this much rain. However, the kids have done a great job and have continued to persevere. I'm just sad they haven't been able to perform more than what they have. I'm keeping my fingers crossed we can get through the next two days with minimal amounts of rain!

If anything else comes up, I will let you know ASAP!

Good morning!

These next 2 weeks are going to be crazy busy for the HS band. Please familiarize yourself with the schedule and what is happening in the program!

1. Football at Heritage Hall on THURSDAY, October 4

• We ARE going! This is our only chance to march the entire show before we go to our two contests NEXT week! 
• 5:10 - Load instruments and equipment. We will travel in FULL uniform (take hats, plumes, and gloves with you)
• I am worried that will not have enough room for our marimba and xylophone in the trailer. If anyone has a truck to where we could load the marimba and tie it down in the back, please let me know ASAP! This is a crucial instrument in the show!
• Ineligible students will attend the game, but will stand on the sidelines at half-time.

2. Everyone MUST be passing all classes by Thursday at 3:30 to keep from being put on the failing list. Please make sure you are REGULARLY checking grades online.

3. PLAYING TEST - Due by 9:00 p.m. on Friday, October 5

• Test must be submitted via Google Classroom.
• This was assigned the first day of school. If it is not turned in on time, it will be a "Zero".  There has been plenty of time to get all of the playing tests recorded and submitted.
• 9:00 p.m. will be the cutoff time. Recordings will not be accepted after that.

3. OSSAA District Contest - Wednesday, October 10 in McAlester

• We will be leaving at 9:00 a.m. to head to MacAlester.
• We will make a lunch stop in McAlester before going to the stadium.
• We are scheduled to warm-up at 2:39 and march at 3:24. We are the final band of the day. Schedules can always fluctuate a little, so be there early if you are planning to watch us march!
• We leave McAlester at approximately 4:45 to head back to Perkins.

4. Homecoming Pep Rally/Bonfire - Wednesday, October 10

• We will meet at 8:00 p.m. in the band room and head to the football field.
• That will not leave much time between the time we get back and the pep rally, but hopefully enough that students can grab a quick bite to eat.
• I know it will be a long day, but this pep rally is important to our team and our community.

5. Football Game - Friday, October 12

• This will be the only time we will get to march the entire show for our home crowd, barring some exceptional circumstances like rain. 
• It is Homecoming, so the timeline will be moved up. Students will need to be at the band room no later than 5:45. We have to be in the stands and set up by 6:30.

6. Beggs Marching Contest - October 13

• This is Prelims/Finals contest. IT WILL BE A LONG DAY!!
• I will have more details about this contest very soon!
• We will need parents to organize food/drinks/etc. for the kids. 

I will have more announcements for you as they come around. 

Good morning!

Just wanted to update everyone on upcoming events before Fall Break!

1. NCDA Honor Band Dues - Due by Friday, Sept. 28. It is $10 per entry.

2. Friday - We will NOT be attending the game in Blackwell. Buses will not be back in from routes until 5:30 or so, and it is far enough away we won't make it in time. (This was a tentative date on the band calendar.)

3. Saturday - Old Settlers' Day Parade

• HS band room open at 7:30 a.m.
• Students must be at the MS band room no later than 8:10 a.m.
  • They must bring their own instruments, uniforms, hats, plumes, etc.!!
  • Remember there will be a lot of extra traffic that morning, so give yourselves enough time to get the the MS.
• Parade starts at 9:00 a.m.
  • Students need to return to the MS band room to get all of their belongings. At that time, they can take everything back to the HS band room. The HS band room will be locked at 11:00 a.m.

4. Thursday, October 4 - Football Game at Heritage Hall (This was a tentative date on the band calendar.)

• We WILL be attending the game. Yes, it is on Thursday night. 
• This will be the only opportunity we have to run the entire show before District Contest on Oct. 10!

5. Wednesday, October 10 - OSSAA District Marching Contest in McAlester

• Finalized times will be coming soon, but we are scheduled in the afternoon and will be the last band of the day (unless something changes). 
• STUDENTS MUST BE PASSING ALL CLASSES BY NEXT THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, TO BE ELIGIBLE!!

6. Saturday, October 13 - Marching Contest in Beggs

• More details to come. This is a prelims/finals contest. Finals begin at 6:00 p.m. and massing of the bands/awards will be at 9:45 p.m. The top 12 bands from prelims will perform in finals. It will potentially be a LONG day.
• We are tentatively scheduled for prelims in the early afternoon.  I should know actual times later this week.

I know there will be other things that come up and I will let you know about those items.

Please contact me if you have questions!

​-PC

First, let me say how proud I am of both of your performances this weekend. Your first run of the show on Friday night was AMAZING!!! You had the crowd engrossed in your performance and you could tell that you were having fun! I know you were hot and miserable in uniform both Friday night and Saturday, but every single one of you did an amazing job. Thank you for being patient and not complaining (too much) about being hot. Saturday's parade in Perry was short and sweet. Once again, you left an impact on the crowd and they thoroughly enjoyed watching and listening to you perform!

If you plan to take your uniform to be dry cleaned, which I would highly recommend, it MUST be taken to Duffy's Dry Clean City in Stillwater. It is located at approximately 6th and Western. You need to have it there by Tuesday in order to have it back in time on Friday. IF YOU HAVE ANY KIND OF STAIN OR DIRT ON YOUR UNIFORM, IT MUST BE DRY CLEANED IMMEDIATELY!

This week is a busy one with Homecoming and other things going on.

Monday - Start inside and watch video from Friday night. New drill charts will be handed out and instructions will be given for Sir Duke.  

Wednesday - ALL CHERRYDALE FARMS ORDER FORMS ARE DUE! Money is due at the time of delivery, however, if money was collected it needs to be turned in with the order. PLEASE DO NOT HOLD ANY MONEY! Check MUST be made out to P-T Band.
8:00pm - Report for Homecoming Pep Rally and Bonfire. Students should be finished no later than 8:45pm.

Thursday - Memorization playing test for "Sir Duke" is to be turned in by 9:00 pm via Google Classroom. At this point, all students should be on Google Classroom. If there are still issues, they must visit with Mrs. Hawkins ASAP!

 Friday - Due to Homecoming festivities Friday night, the band must be in the stands by 6:30. Call time for Friday night is 5:45. We will be in full uniform. Also, we will have members of the OSU Cowboy Marching Band in the stands with us. This is always a fun time for all of us, so help them out and allow them to share music. I will do my best to have some music put together for them, but not sure I will be able to do so this week.

I will make more announcements later on as necessary. Let's have a fantastic week and keep moving forward in our progress! You all amaze me every single day! :-)

This Friday's game is in Hennessey. As I had mentioned earlier, the transportation situation has hit everyone hard this year. We are going to be able to take one bus to the game. Therefore, it will only be a pep band. I hate not taking everyone, but at least we are able to get a pep band there. I am hoping in the future, we will have 2 buses available so the entire band will be able to travel.

We will load the trailer at 5:00. (Students should eat BEFORE coming to the band room.) We should return from Hennessey around 11:00 p.m. Students will wear casual uniform. 

HANDBOOK FORMS:  All handbook forms are due TOMORROW!! This includes the school instrument and percussion usage forms with payment. (If there is an issue with getting payment to me by tomorrow, please let me know.)

PLAYING TEST:  All wind and percussion players have their first playing test due on Thursday. Playing tests must be recorded and then submitted through Google Classroom. Every student has received an invitation to the HS Band Google Classroom except the 2 or 3 students who are new to the district. Videos must be recorded with the camera facing the student. Students are to play the song "Superstition" from memory and should be listening to the recording that is on the band website while playing. Percussionists will need to record their tests at school. ALL PLAYING TESTS ARE DUE BY 9:00 P.M.!! Do NOT wait until the last minute to try to record and upload! If the students have any questions, they need to talk to me. 
​

Good evening! After a full day of professional development and visiting with Mrs. Carlson about some thing, I wanted to let everyone know about a couple of changes.

1. We have decided to wait until MONDAY to start our 7:30 a.m. rehearsals. 

2. Thursday and Friday will start at 8:15.

3. If you and/or your child have not made arrangements to arrive in time for the start of the 7:30 early rehearsals, that needs to happen ASAP. The buses do NOT arrive early enough. Please have your child talk to their section leader or an upper classmen. There are many students who would be willing to help out if asked!

4. I have had several questions about away games. As of right now, everything is still up in the air concerning transportation. Please leave all dates listed on the band calendar open whether it says tentative or not. Students are required to be at all performances!! Again, I will keep you posted on the issue as more information becomes available.

5. Band photos will be available soon!

Thank you all for your work and support during band camp. This is a FANTASTIC group of students with a very bright future ahead of them!

WOW! What a great week of camp with the full band! The kids have worked so hard and we have made a lot of progress in a very short amount of time. 

Here is the schedule for this week. There have been a couple of changes in the schedule this week, so please pay attention as each day is a bit different.

Monday:
8:30 a.m. - Full band meets (Football players are excused due to their practice.)

• Be dressed in your band shirt from last year. 
• Performance for Freshman camp will be around 9:00 a.m. We will probably be finished by 9:15.
• Freshman will attend the freshman camp after our performance.
• All other students will be released after the performance.

1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - Full band rehearsal

Tuesday:
10:00 -12:00 - Outside marching rehearsal **THIS IS A TIME CHANGE FROM PREVIOUSLY POSTED SCHEDULE!
12:00 - 1:00 - Lunch
1:00 - 3:00 - Inside music rehearsal

Wednesday:
9:00 - 11:30 - Full Band Rehearsal **THIS IS A TIME CHANGE FROM PREVIOUSLY POSTED SCHEDULE!

Thursday: PHOTO DAY!!
8:30 - Photos begin **THIS IS A TIME CHANGE FROM PREVIOUSLY POSTED SCHEDULE!

• Students will be in full uniform for photos.
• Students need to have their marching shoes (if they already have some). We will size all other students this week to make an order.
• ALL students will need LONG, SOLID BLACK SOCKS!!! If students don't have marching shoes yet, they will simply wear their black socks for the group picture.
• Individual portraits will be taken of every student in their uniform. As soon as the images are available, I will send a link out to everyone and you can download the photos at no cost to you. 
• Football players will need to get to the band room ASAP after practice to get their photos taken. Once all individual photos are taken, we will take a large group photo.
• Once photos are finished, we will rehearse until 11:30 if there is enough time to do so.

Friday: LAST DAY OF CAMP!!
9:00 - 11:30 - Full Band Rehearsal **THIS IS A TIME CHANGE FROM PREVIOUSLY POSTED SCHEDULE!

We are ending a little earlier on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to give students going to Tech a chance to clean up and eat lunch before their afternoon classes.

Since we don't have any activities planned for this week, we are going to have "Themed Days" to add a little fun to rehearsals.
Monday - Crazy Hat/Hair Day
Tuesday - Hawaiian Day
Wednesday - Crazy Socks Day
Thursday - 'Merica Day
Friday - Gender Bender Day

TRANSPORTATION:
As many of you may have noticed in the Perkins Journal this past week, the school district as a whole is short on bus drivers. As of right now, they are five drivers short from where they were last year. This may GREATLY impact how much the band travels to everything from football games to band contests. I honestly do not know what is going to happen yet. There are a lot of conversations going on between different people and the administration. We are monitoring the situation closely and we will keep you posted on changes that may have to be made.

Thank you all for being outstanding students, parents, and supporters of the band program. I have NO DOUBT this is going to be an INCREDIBLE YEAR!

I hope everyone is ready! The drum line and color guard have worked hard this past week. The new members of the band came in on Friday with the leadership team to work on marching fundamentals.

NOW....IT'S TIME TO GET THE BAND BACK TOGETHER!!

Schedule for this week:
Monday (8/6):
8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. - Uniform check-out for Seniors and Juniors: WW players
10:00  a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Outside marching practice
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. - Lunch (on your own) 
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - Inside music rehearsal/Color Guard rehearsal

Tuesday (8/7):
8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. - Uniform check-out for Juniors: Brass & Percussion
10:00  a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Outside marching practice
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. - Lunch (on your own) 
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - Inside music rehearsal/Color Guard rehearsal
3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. - FUN ACTIVITY: Project Runway - Band Camp Edition
6:30 p.m. - Band Booster Meeting for all band parents

Wednesday (8/8):
8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. - Uniform check-out for Sophomores
10:00  a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Outside marching practice
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. - Lunch (on your own) 
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - Inside music rehearsal/Color Guard rehearsal
3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. - FUN ACTIVITY: Game Day

Thursday (8/9):
8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. - Uniform check-out for Freshmen: Brass & Percussion
10:00  a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Outside marching practice
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. - Lunch (on your own) 
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - Inside music rehearsal/Color Guard rehearsal
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. - FUN ACTIVITY: Movie Day (BRING SNACKS TO SHARE!)

Friday (8/10):
8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. - Uniform check-out for Freshmen: Woodwinds and anyone who missed check-out
10:00  a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Outside marching practice
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. - Lunch (on your own) 
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - Inside music rehearsal/Color Guard rehearsal
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. - P-T Band Family Cookout at the Territorial Plaza

REMINDERS:
*Bring water! Stay hydrated!
*Dress appropriately for being outside in the heat.
*All students must wear lace up athletic shoes for their own safety!
*BRING SUNGLASSES AND/OR A HAT TO WEAR OUTSIDE!
*Wear sunscreen!
*Have all music ready to go in your flip folders BEFORE Monday afternoon's music rehearsal! 
*Everyone MUST have a pencil!
*Have all supplies, reeds, valve oil, etc., for your instrument to work correctly!

TRYING ON UNIFORMS:
*Wear thin athletic shorts and a t-shirt. This will make the process go MUCH faster!
*If you have long hair, it will need to be put up how you will wear it with your hat to ensure we get the correct hat size.
*Black marching shoes - Anyone needing marching shoes will be sized at some point during camp. We will make a large group order and will let you know how much shoes will be.
*Students will also need black gloves with their uniform. They will be $3.00 a pair. Please send CORRECT change on uniform day if they need gloves.

I will post more announcements as they become available. Please learn to check the website often! I also highly recommend that you sync the P-T Band calendar to your phone! It will be the most update information on dates and times during the school year!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!

-Mrs. Cartmell

Good afternoon!

I just wanted to touch base with everyone again before band camp begins next week. I've had several questions about
the schedule, so I am going to try to clear things up.

Monday (7/30) - Thursday (8/2): 9:00 a.m. - noon  All Percussion and Color Guard members

Wednesday (8/1) - Thursday (8/2): 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (approximately)  All Section Leaders and Drum Majors

Friday (8/2) - 9:00 a.m. - noon   All 9th graders, new color guard members, Section Leaders, and Drum Majors. This will be
an OUTSIDE marching fundamentals rehearsal. Students must have lace-up athletic shoes (for their safety), WATER,
and sunscreen.

All members will report to FULL band camp on Monday, August 6. Please check the newsletter for times and details.
Uniform check-out will begin for designated groups at 8:00 a.m. Students must wear thin athletic shorts, t-shirt, and long
hair needs to be put up for uniform hat fitting.

We will begin promptly at the designated time for both morning and afternoon rehearsals. Students should plan to arrive
at least 10 minutes early for every rehearsal.

Students need to bring a JUG OF WATER to drink. We will be monitoring the weather and will take lots of water breaks. A
little bottle of water will not keep them hydrated. Students also need to start hydrating now by drinking lots of water. It
will help once we begin those outside rehearsals. Students also need to be prepared with sunscreen. 

Students absolutely MUST have lace up athletic shoes for their own safety. Boots, slip-on shoes, flip flops, etc., are
NOT appropriate for marching. I would also advise that shoes be something they strictly use for marching band. We will have
a place for students to keep them at school. They will get dirty, gross, and will not smell good. 

If ANYTHING has changed with your child and their decision to continue with band, please let me know ASAP. I have put
many hours into planning things, so it helps me to know ahead of time if plans have changed. 

I'm incredibly excited about getting this year started. I am also incredibly excited to announce that our new Assistant
Director of Bands is Ms. Lynzi Carlson. Ms. Carlson has previously taught in Blanchard, OK and Wauchula, FL. She is a low
​brass player and is very excited to be joining the P-T Band family!

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. 

Have a wonderful day!