We (members of HHS Bands) wanted to bring to your attention a problem members of the band are facing with current school policies. Students have been unable to fit all of their classes into their schedules with required subjects such as physical education, and people are having to choose between academic classes and physical education. We are writing to you today to try and change these policies. We have three proposed ideas to fix this problem. We could institute a period 0 physical education where band and other music students came to school early and did physical education before band that includes stretches and preparing for marching band. This way, people would still be participating in physical education every other day but it would not take up a space in our schedules during the school day. Another solution would be a summer physical education course where students could complete physical education over the summer to fulfill their physical education credit for the year so it does not take a spot in their schedules. A last solution would be counting band as a physical education credit. The Massachusetts General Law Part I, Title XII, Chapter 71, Section 3 states that instruction for physical education can include military drill. Marching band is considered a military drill as we march in the military style. We would add another parade into the band’s schedule to create this year round marching program to fulfill the physical education requirement throughout the entire school year and not just in the fall and spring. The signatures below are students at Hanover High School and other members of the community who support this change, and we hope you consider allowing these changes to the scheduling policies in support of students participating in academics and the arts.