Rodden and Lyon

Ms. Kara Rodden

(555) 867-5309
Kara.Rodden@go.AEMHS.com
September 20th, 2015
Dear Anthony Pursell,
First off, thank you from the Albert Einstein Memorial High School band faculty for
taking the time to read our budget request for the 2015-2016 academic year. It is your
contributions to our music program that gives our students the opportunity to instill the
core values of ambition, preparation, duty, fellowship and love into their daily lives. The
band faculty and I plan for this upcoming academic year to be a huge success, and we
want the school administration to be a part of it.
Please find the following attached documents that details the breakdown of our budget
request for this upcoming academic year of $15,674. Please note that this is a 26.3%
decrease from our original budget request of $21,274. Thanks again for taking the time to
review our budget request. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me on my office
phone number or email me.
Sincerely,

Kara Rodden
Director of Bands

Rodden and Lyon

Overall Total:
26.3% cut new total 15,674
$21,274
Marching Band
Items
Justification
Price
Marching Show Music and Drill
Water Dances (whole show JW For UIL, the marching band needs a complete $1,000.00
Pepper - 10508658)
marching show to compete. This show is right
Jason K. Nitsch
on par with our students ability while still
1. Wild Water Dances
challenging them on a musical level. This
JW Pepper - 10508659
piece is sold as a whole for $1,000.
2. The Water Ballet
We can eliminate this cost by using music
$00.00
10508669
from
our
library.
This
is
not
ideal,
but
we
3. The Water Dances
found 3 pieces that could serve as a marching
10508661
show when laced together appropriately.
Drill Writer:
Mike Ellis is a seasoned and accomplished
$3,000.00
Mike Ellis
drill writer and has served us very well in the
past to write drill that challenges the students
Christian Lyon
as well as making the marching show very
enjoyable for half time at the football games.
With the pyware program that we have
$00.00
requested Mr. Lyon, the Associate Band
Director, can write our marching drill
eliminating this cost.
Equipment
New Sousaphone:
The band has grown rather significantly and
$7,590.00
Conn Sousaphone w/ Case
we really need this extra instrument to have a
Item #467295987
more well-rounded timbre. In addition, the
Model #20KW
sousaphones we own have diminished in
quality due to aging.
Yard Line Markers
The yard line markers used last year have
$150.00
grown moldy. The best set for the marching
band would be the Stackhouse Sideline
Markers. In addition to field markers, we
decided due to health concerns that the old
tote used for storing the field markers should
be replaced as well. The Rubbermaid
Roughneck 25 Gallon Tote would make a
great replacement for storing and carrying the
new field markers.
New Sound System
Weve been using the same speaker for the
$250.00
past twelve years and it has gotten to the point
where we are in need of a more boisterous
sound system. In addition, we would like to
utilize a speaker that has compatibility with
mp3 players, such as an iPhone for example.

Rodden and Lyon

New Drum Major Podium

Show Entry:
28th Annual Desoto
Marching Classic
Competition

The speaker we recommend is the Alto

Professional iPA Music System Powered
Speaker Cabinet.
The drum major podium weve been using is
out of date and has now become a potential
liability for the students. Due to its age, the
podium is not stable and shows signs that it
could give out at any rehearsal. We believe it
would be in the best interest of the school if
we replace the drum major podium as soon as
possible. We recommend the Directors
Showcase International 52 Command Center
Podium.
Competitions
This is a competition that we have attended
for many years. This competition will serve as
a practice run in a competitive environment
which will help prepare us better for the UIL
competition.

Concert and Jazz

Item
Justification
Three Charts for Concert and Sight Reading
1. American Riversongs
The first piece, American Riversongs, is
-Pierre La Plante
rhythmically challenging and is a variation on
2255933
the folk songs the bands have performed in the
2. Fantasy on a Japanese past. The second piece, Fantasy on a Japanese
Folksong, is a lyrical piece that will challenge
Folksong
the bands with its high demands of lyricism
-Samuel Hazo
and musicality. Dancing at Stonehenge is a
10005332
3. Dancing at Stonehenge piece that is both lyrically and rhythmically
challenging at the same time. This program
-Anthony Suter
will challenge us as a whole as we work
10033053
towards the annual UIL competition.
Pre UIL Clinician
Michael Perry
Weve used this person to clinic our
ensembles for the past three years. Perry
always brings a fresh perspective to our
ensemble and helps prepare our students for
their performances and competitions. Perrys
clinicians run a rate of about $100 an hour and
he prefers to run rehearsals in three-hour
increments.
Equipment
Bent Key on Older Bass
Because this instrument is fifteen years old
Clarinet
and has a multitude of other issues, we would

$1,069.00

$300.00

Price
$85.00
$85.00

$76.00

$300.00

$100.00

Rodden and Lyon

Hi Hat for Drum Set

New Drum Heads for

Drum Set

New Bass Clarinet

like to get a well-rounded tune-up so that

students using the bass clarinet can perform to
the best of their abilities.
Christian Lyon, the associate band director, is
a woodwind specialist. After research he is
confident that he can effectively repair this
issue.
In addition to new drum heads, the hi hat for
the drum set has become worn out due to
excessive use and wear. The hi hat previously
used is five years old and the students who
have used it range in experience. We
recommend the Zildjian 14 in. hi hat because
of its quality and durability.
The drumheads used for the jazz band have
expanded to the point where theyre unusable.
Because of this, we are asking for a new set of
replacement drumheads, including one for the
bass drum. We recommend the Remo
Pinstripe PrePak Drumheads with Coated
Snarehead, priced at $39.99, and the Evans
EMAD Resonant Bass Drum Head, priced at
$33.93.
Below is a table of the current state of our
concert bass clarinets, their age and repair
history:
Model
Age
Repair
History
Allora AABC304

25 years

Leblanc 7168
Standard

15 years

Broken
Register Key
Broken
Bridge Key
Air leaks in
pads
Cracked
wood
Broken
Register Key
Broken
Bridge Key
Air leaks in
pads

The quality of our concert bass clarinets are

not as up to par as they should be, we
recommend the Selmer 1430LP Bb Bass
Clarinet Standard because it is an inexpensive
horn that would work great for the

$00.00

$170

$90.00

$1,869.00

Rodden and Lyon

intermediate player.
Buses for students

Uhaul for students

equipment

Item
Yearly office supplies
Finale Music writing
Software Update

Pyware Drill Designer

Software

Percussion and Color Guard

Staff

Mini Tour to Middle School

Our top band will have a small performance
$500.00
tour and perform around the nearby high
schools. We will need buses to get our
ensembles and students to our destinations
with their instruments. We will need two buses
to transport the students for this tour and each
bus costs $250.
For the mini tour, we will need a 15 truck to
$40.00
accommodate all the larger instruments and
percussion instruments that couldnt fit on the
buses. We would travel a total of 10 miles.
Administration
Justification
This fluctuates from year to year, and entirely
depends on how responsible the student are
with their copies of the originals.
The version of finale we currently have is no
longer compatible with the latest update of the
operating system software we have loaded
onto our school computers rendering the
program useless without the current update.
Most drill designers use this program to write
their drill. This program we used to have was
deleted in the system update during the
summer. Our program needs this software to
receive and view the drill that we are paying
Mr. Mike Ellis to write.
We still need this software however Christian
Lyon will be writing now, not Mike Ellis.
It has come to our attention in the music
faculty that the marching band is in need of a
technician for Color Guard and Percussion.
This is why we are asking for part-time
adjuncts in color guard and percussion to help
aid us throughout band camp and the
academic year. To get logistical, these adjuncts
will work one week during the band camp
(Monday through Friday) and will help during
marching rehearsals every Monday and
Thursday from September 1st through
December 1st. We find a respectable amount to
be around $15 an hour, which translate to

Price
$200.00
$150.00

$350.00

$3,000.00

Rodden and Lyon

MacBook Pro Laptop

about $1,500 overall per adjunct.

Mr. Lyon and I both have a slight background
in Color Guard. We believe that we can
accommodate the program this year and
provide a Color Guard support that will be
adequate enough to get us through the year.
The previous MacBook is out of date and
crashes frequently. In addition, there is no
space on the hardware left to take care of
activities such as taking inventory in the band
hall or keeping data on the students currently
enrolled in certain ensembles. We recommend
the Apple MD10LLA MacBook Pro for its use
of extra space and efficiency.

$1,500.00

$900.00