This year the Washington School District’s middle school and high school band administration has come under new leadership in the form of two new band directors, Stewart Alloway and Madeline Watts, both of whom, along with the third director Jacob Bisaillon lead the program.

“There’s a lot of great resources down here in Washington, being a one high school district it allows us to connect with community more effectively and the admin is very supportive here.”

The students have adapted “Incredibly well” and “very gracefully” to the new leadership, according to Madeline Watts

Watts has been “trying to connect with [students] and being there and showing that we’re in it for the long haul, and now [students] really starting to trust us and have fun with it.”

The three directors are working together for the benefit of the students. 

  “I expected it to be harder,” Bisaillon said. “I was in Colorado for all of June with graduate school. I came back in July, and we had a couple of weeks before [band] camp.” 

The Pride of Washington has started off strong with a 1st place win at the Sullivan Band Competition.

Bisaillon stated, “We all three have very different strengths,” Bisaillon said. “We balance each other out really, really well, so it makes for a really strong team.”