Weekly Announcements - Week of 7.27.2026
Panther Band & Guard Family,
First off, thank you for an incredible first week of full summer band. We have been so impressed not only with how quickly the group is learning, but also how well they have been meeting expectations, and how kind they have been towards one another. We can't wait to see what this next week holds!
If you have not, please look at this week's schedule on the Google Calendar. This week, we rehearse from 8 AM to 8 PM on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Students should bring two meals (lunch and dinner). We will break for dinner just prior to 5 PM so students have plenty of time to eat and be ready for the evening block at 6 PM. The entire program will be staying inside for the evening block this week (6 PM - 8 PM), with the goal of continuing to make progress on both our show music for Pop!, and also our assortment of stand tunes.
The Google Calendar on the band website (www.lhpantherband.org/calendar) is the only place the Google Calendar is posted, so we encourage you to click the 'Add to Google Calendar' button on it to add it to your devices. This is the most certain way to make sure you have any event updates/edits immediately.
Parents, if you need to approve app installs for your student, please approve/allow them to install the UDBapp: Powered by Arc to their device. This is the app we use to learn our individual coordinates for our drill (the pictures we make on the field). Returning students, this is a different app than we have used in years past. Please make sure you install this updated version of the UDBapp.
iOS app link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/udbapp-powered-by-arc/id6762600003
Android app link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=arc.udb.blue&hl=en_US
Students, once you have installed the app and created an account, see ParentSquare for our subject code and group code. After entering that, you should be in the Panther Band & Guard class and should see three drill files you can download in the 'Drills' tab: UDB Sample Drill, Liberty Hill 2026 - Movement 1, and "full tilt" - Liberty Hill 2025 - Movement 2 - 8.4 If you have any questions, we will be going over this tomorrow morning before we head outside.
We are so excited to be partnering with our Band Boosters for our annual March-a-Thon fundraiser! Parents, please be on the lookout for two flyers from the Band Boosters (sent home with your student last week) and also informational emails from our Band Booster President, Jason Marx, president@lhpantherband.org. If you are not receiving these emails, please check your spam folders.
The Panther Band & Guard is working hard to improve not only our overall attendance, but also our documentation of attendance in an easy-to-understand and distribute format. This year, we are using the TeacherAide app. We're very excited to explore all of the features of this app, one of which are generated charts of attendance by day. Green is Present (and on time), the darker red is Unexcused Absence, orange is Unexcused Tardy, pink is Excused Absence, and yellow is Excused Tardy. The generated charts only show percentages for 5% and greater.
We recognize we ask a lot of everyone's time during summer band, so we wanted to help define some parameters between excused and unexcused absences. Please note that this list is not comprehensive and do not cover every potential reason for an absence, it is just a starting point.
Some examples of excused absences are:
a documented health care appointment (please turn in a doctor's note via the Doctor's Note Upload Form after the appointment)
illness
family emergency
funerals
weddings
religious ceremony/observance
As summer band continues on, we will keep working hard to see if we can achieve 90%+ 'Present' attendance, which is a metric we have struggled with in the past. We appreciate your support with this!
Freshmen: please bring your compression shorts each day this week. (You do not have to wear them all day.) Our Uniform parents have been doing a fantastic job getting everyone's marching uniforms fit and we are ready to get the freshmen class fitted! You will be able to change into your compression shorts prior to your fitting.
Everyone: PLEASE wash your water jug today (if you have not already)! The students have been doing an amazing job of taking their water jugs home at the end of each day, and staying on top of water jug cleaning is one of the best ways to stop the spread of any illness in the program. Also, please bring something to lay on outside (mat, yoga mat, towel, etc.) this week. We will be adding some core exercises to our morning repertoire and want to give everyone the opportunity to lay on something a little bit more comfortable than just the practice field.
Again, thank you ALL for an incredible first week of summer band (or Week 2 if you're in the percussion and guard). We are so excited to see what we're able to cover this upcoming week. Get some rest and we'll see you all tomorrow!
Go Panthers!
Joshua Muñoz
Director of Bands
Liberty Hill High School
