For many, the end of the school year has come and gone – and for everyone else, the end is near. Have you made all of your preparations for the summer? Are your fall plans shaping up? 

Here’s a list of items most music teachers need to wrap up before the doors shut for the summer.

• Prepare supply orders for the next school year
• Memorial Day Parade
• Confirm details for band camp
• Confirm details for band camp staff
• Develop summer rehearsal schedule and fall perfomance schedule
• Set up summer activities (lessons, camps, parades, etc.)
• Prepare facility repair lists
• Prepare graduation music
• Collect concert uniforms
• Collect outstanding debts
• Graduation arrangements
• Instrument inventory (assess fines if applicable especially for seniors)
• Uniform inventory
• Return borrowed music and scores
• Clean and lubricate instruments and vacuum cases
• Send out summer repairs
• Create lists of incoming freshmen
   

And, “it’s never too early,” says MENC band mentor James Sheeley, “to schedule dates for next year’s performances.”

–Becky Spray, May 20, 2009. © MENC: The National Association for Music Education