I've been told my "feeder program" sucks
Middle school band directors - how do you cope with a poor high school program? How do you cope with them blaming you for the failure of the HS program?
Most kids here join band in 4th grade. I have the kids from 6th-9th grade. My numbers are great - I have a ton of kids wanting to join and rarely have kids drop out of the program. We have three concert bands at the Middle school because of the quantity of students. We also have a jazz band and a chamber club. We play some really solid stuff and kid's individual progress grows a ton in our group lessons. I try my best to ensure I'm sending up quality musicians, not just quantity.
Our high school program is struggling. As hard as I try to grow the program as a "feeder", the HS still loses SO many of the students after their first year at the high school. I understand kids will naturally drop out over time, but the rate of them leaving is so high. Some of my extremely motivated kids (took private lessons, actually practiced, took on playing opportunities outside of school) are dropping out too.
The band plays the same grade tunes as we do in my best middle school band. I've had parents and students reach out to me about the state of things up there. The marching program is even worse. The football staff doesn't even let them play pep tunes, SSB, or the alma mater anymore because it's so bad. They just play recordings on the speakers. They get their pregame show and that's it.
The HS band director keeps asking me to recruit recruit recruit. That my "feeder program" isn't feeding and playing it's role in the school band system. I also have admin breathing down my neck because for some reason they're starting to see me as the problem. They've insinuated that the issues up there are my fault because I'm not sending up talented enough musicians.
I feel I have no control over the situation and have no idea what to do.