District 202 High School Marching Bands should be extra curricular activities and not a mandatory part of the band curriculum. Our school band programs lose dozens of kids each year who love playing their instrument, but don't like marching. This extreme demand on student time for a single class makes band inaccessible for students from dual working families, single parent families and many low-income families who would need their high school student to watch younger siblings outside of school hours or hold a job. Lincolnway is a great model of how a voluntary multi-school marching band can be incredibly successful. There are no other classes that require students to come in during the summer for two weeks of 9 hour days. No other classes make attendance at football games, weekend competitions and afterschool practices mandatory graded events.  These should be voluntary afterschool activities.  Football players are not given a scholastic grade on their performance on the football field. Why are we giving scholastic grades to kids in band on the same field at the same game? I brought this issue up to Plainfield Central High School and I was told that I would need a lot of voices to make any sort of change.  So please, stand with me and be another voice to make this logical decision a reality.