Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Does anyone have any experience or opinions with either the Marvin Ridge H.S. or Weddington H.S. marching bands?
How large are these bands? Are they just as respected as athletics at their schools? Is marching band considered an elective which earns school credit or is it just an extracurricular activity/club?
We are relocating in June 2018 and are thinking about these 2 schools for our kids, both of whom are musicians.
Thank you for any information you can share.
Last edited by butterflygirlmomof2; 08-21-2017 at 10:16 AM..
I can't confirm the sizes of either of those bands. I recommend that you go to each of the schools and speak to the band director.
My kids went to Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools - not Union County schools. When my kids were in marching band they got 1 credit (per year) for marching band. As you know it is very time consuming. Unfortunately, being in marching band is not respected as much as athletics. I wish I could tell you differently. I think marching band was one of the best choices my kids made in an activity.
Not sure if music is just one of your children's extra-curricular activities, or if they'd want to go all-in on music. If they want to go all-in, I would highly recommend looking into Northwest School of the Arts. It is a public performing arts magnet school, but you must reside within CMS. It is a unique high school education so wanted to put that out there as an option (but obviously not for everybody).
If your students are musically and academically gifted, Northwest School of the Arts is a good option for students who want the arts to be the "varsity" at school (they don't have varsity sports). Students do need to audition to be accepted. Academics are solid as well and the school is rated a 10/10 for test scores on Greatschools.
AP courses are offered in: English 11 & 12, Calculus, Statistics, Biology, Environmental Studies, U.S. and European History, Psychology, Computer Science, Human Geography, Studio Art, and Art History.
If you're looking for big band programs, you could cross the border into York County - Fort Mill High and Nation Ford High both feature large, much-honored programs.
CLT4...while my kids love to play music, they don't have a desire to pursue it as a career and certainly aren't serious enough to attend a specialized school. They do have a couple of friends who would absolutely thrive in that sort of setting, though.
Phocion...I didn't know about Cuthbertson, so thanks for mentioning it. I'll have to do some research there.
Megassel...Yes, we are now considering the York County areas, as well. My oldest mentioned that Fort Mill HS recently won some sort of national competition and he seemed impressed by that.
Just to clarify...the high school band program here in Northern California is HUGE; something like 350+ kids, which seems quite over-the-top. The "requested donation" for a kid doing marching band is nearly $1,400 PER YEAR. I'm hoping to find a school where my kids can still participate in competitions without spending that kind of money. So I'm not sure what the magic number is. Is it 100-150 kids? 200? One of the reasons the cost is so crazy here is the transportation fees associated with busing such a large number of kids to various cities to compete.
I'd recommend doing some research on the UCPS website to find the band directors (Marvin/Weddington/Cuthbertson) and just e-mail them directly. You'll probably get answers back pretty quick with more specific answers in terms of cost outlay + size of band.
If you're looking to move to Fort Mill and thinking about marching bands, you need to look closely as to where you move. There will be 3 high schools soon and though both Fort Mill High School and Nation Ford High School have marching bands, NAFO (as we call it) is the more competitive of the two -- for now. They'll be marching at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (they marched at the parade a few years ago as well which has given a boost to the number of kids that want to participate). The marching bands are treated as highly as the football teams in both schools.
Edit to add: the reason I said that you need to look closely is that if your kids look to either FMHS or NAFO specifically you need to make sure that you move into an area that is solidly in the attendance zone. With the new HS coming in, anyone living on the border of one of the zones can be moved to the new HS. We're walking distance from NAFO (we can hear the band practicing from our house), so we know where our son will attend eventually.
Last edited by SCCoqui; 08-28-2017 at 06:44 AM..
Reason: more info
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
