LET THE MUSIC PLAY
Marching Knights approved for fall season with safety plan
Fall sports teams are not the only North Penn High School students who will be back in action soon.
The district school board voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the return of the North Penn Marching Knights, with safety plans that may make the marching band look a little different in 2020.
“There’s been constant communication between staff, students and parents throughout July and August,” said high school Principal Pete Nicholson.
“The use of masks has been mandatory by all students and staff — except, obviously, the woodwinds and brass while they’re playing,” he said.
With practices underway since early July under the district early return-to-play policies, Nicholson and Assistant Superintendent Todd Bauer showed the school board on Wednesday night the latest plans and rules for the awardwinning marching band to return to full competitions. All students and staff have been taking temperature checks prior to any rehearsals, while also filling out symptom forms, and quarantining if they’ve traveled to states on state-mandated “do-not-fly” lists.
“Since July 9, the Marching Knights have held 22 rehearsals, for over 133 hours, and had zero cases of COVID-19 attributable to the Marching Knights,” Nicholson
said.
One case was detected in a staff member that was unrelated to the marching band, Nicholson told the board, and that case was discussed with the state’s Department of Health, which advised that the individual could quarantine without the need to shut the rest of the band down. All members have been rehearsing while wearing masks and gloves, sanitizing hands whenever necessary, and taking care to only use their own equipment.
“They have been diligent this year — and this is a big difference for them — been diligent in not sharing equipment: drummers not sharing drum sticks, percussion not sharing mallets,” Nicholson said.
“They’re only using their own equipment, and ensuring they’re not sharing anything,” he said.
Band members are spread across the high school campus in small groups based on their instrument, with distancing maintained between members of each group, and strict limits on the number who can enter the high school itself.
“The only use of the interior part of the building at all is a one-at-a-time bathroom use for students. When they do need to use the facilities, they’re allowed, one at a time, to proceed into the building, and when that student comes back, another is sent in,” Nicholson said.
Pending board approval, the band plans to purchase “bell covers” to shroud the ends of wind and brass instruments and minimize possible spray of any particulates, Nicholson told the board. State and national band organizers have decided that competitions in 2020 will be done virtually and in smaller groups, by
instrument only.
“At no time will all 85 students be together: they won’t march together, they won’t perform together, they will be separated for the entire time, and spread out on campus as well,” Nicholson said.
All performances will be recorded and submitted online, so no travel is needed, and shows at halftime of high school football games will likely be recorded and broadcast instead of performed live, he said. Updated guidelines issued this week by Montgomery County do specify social distancing be maintained for marching bands, which Nicholson said the band has been doing already.
“We are 100 percent outside, 100 percent social distanced, and the Marching Knights are at least six feet apart, and on the exterior of the building,” he said. “Realistically, the return to play procedures that have been in place since July 9 will continue in place, pending board approval for the Marching Knights to move forward.”
Board President Tina Stoll said she recently visited a Marching Knights practice and was “very impressed” with their safety procedures; Nicholson credited band director Joe Santanello with putting those in place and ensuring they’re followed; board member Jonathan Kassa added he was glad to see a “culture of safety” already in place.
“This is just the new type of normal, where students know they have to mask up and have distancing, and do these things without thinking. That’s the point we’re getting to,” he said.
Board member Christian Fusco added that all band practices would be fully outdoors and fully distanced, and member Juliane Ramic thanked staff and the band members for working together to follow the rules.
“It does require that every
member of the band, and every parent involved, and every staff member engaged in this, also agree to abide by that plan. We all have to have this equal commitment to making this work,” she said.
Board member Cathy Wesley asked if outdoor marching band practices would interfere with the projected return to school in early November, and Nicholson answered that the band’s season should be over by then and have no impact. Member Wanda Lewis-Campbell asked about spectators, and Nicholson said all competitions would be filmed and broadcast by the school’s NPTV channel, but no spectators allowed in person.
Board member Al Roesch asked for details on how the band handled the possible exposure case, and Nicholson said staff immediately contacted the state Department of Health upon learning of the case. Bauer added that the state’s contact tracing program identified by that afternoon that no students were exposed, due to safety procedures the band already had in place, and by 2 p.m. that day the band knew that only adults needed to quarantine and that students were safe.
“We followed their precautions that they put in place, and as a result, no one else tested positive,” Bauer said.
And board member Tim MacBain said, while some may see it as unfair that the marching band can return while students are still learning at home, social distancing is built into the nature of the band itself.
“In marching band, social distancing is one of the goals of that program. A lot of us sat around in spring, thinking ‘If we could have only known ahead of time, and trained students to walk eight to ten steps apart, as they moved as a larger group.’ And that’s what the band does,” he said.