The future of the Pleasant Valley band program wasn’t on the school board agenda for Thursday night, but it was on the minds of the parents.

That same day, high school band director James DeVivo notified band parents and students and the superintendent that due to his new schedule, there will no competitions this school year for the marching band, jazz band and concert band. His new schedule requires him to be the band director at the high school and middle school, which now also includes sixth grade.

“This was completely unbeknown to me,” Superintendent James Konrad said.

Konrad said DeVivo made the announcement to the students and parents before telling him. He said they had conversations during the school year about the schedule and he wished DeVivo had come to him first.

Konrad said employees who receive supplemental pay for activities outside of the regular school day are expected to fulfill those duties.

“I do want to let the public know that it’s our intention to fully participate in band competitions,” Konrad said. “We want to continue to promote the band.”

School board President Susan Kresge asked for an explanation of the changes to DeVivo’s schedule that would cause him to say this.

“I’m just struggling with this,” she said.

Assistant to the Superintendent Rae Lin Howard said DeVivo will be splitting his time between the high school and middle school, but some responsibilities have been removed in order to free up time for the middle school. Plus, he will not be traveling between the two buildings every day. Some days he will be at one building and the other building on other days.

“He will have the same amount of time during the day to do lessons, if not more than he did before,” Howard said.

Konrad added that DeVivo will be able to get back to the high school after the school day is over to work with the band to prepare them for competitions, and Howard confirmed that would be the case.

Kresge said, “I was just flabbergasted today when this came to me in a text.”

During public comment, Lynette Possinger of Chestnuthill Township said, “I hope you are all more intelligent that what you are seeming right now; that you don’t think that adding another building and three more grades to someone’s day and their schedule is going to create more work. And that just because they are more available now for more lessons that’s better.”

Possinger said that DeVivo is responsible for double the amount of students now.

“That is a huge responsibility,” she said.

Possinger also noted that in her experience as a teacher that traveled between buildings, the teacher loses a lot of time packing everything needed for the other building, walking to the car, driving to the other building, unpacking and getting prepared for that part of the day.

“It is not an easy thing to do,” she said.

Possinger went on to say that band has been like a home to many students, because DeVivo is there in the classroom and created that atmosphere.

“There’s no way that he’s going to be able to do that,” she said.

Danielle Serfass of Eldred Township said, “These kids work very hard, very, very hard to be in the band. You people know this. The competitions can’t go on. How do you think that Mr. DeVivo is going to do 15 jobs (with) one person? How do you think that this is going to be going on? These kids can’t do it. … It’s just amazing how much our band program is getting tweaked and how much these kids are losing while we give everything else to everybody else. It’s terrible. It’s disgusting to say the least.”

Serfass said that she thinks the common sense thing to do would be to replace the middle school band director who resigned last school year.

“This band is a home for these kids. I ask you to think about what you guys are doing to them,” Serfass said.