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By JOYANNA LOVE | Managing Editor

Jemison High School celebrated the completion of its band room with a reception on Feb. 16.

The addition was something leaders at the school had wanted to see become a reality for at least the last nine years.

“I still can’t believe it’s here,” JHS band teacher Dakota Bromley said as he was standing in the room. “I probably won’t until we work in it for a while. It just shows that folks around here see how important this activity is and that we needed the space … It’s exciting.”

The new space will benefit both the JHS and Jemison Middle School band students, allowing the two classes to meet at the same time.

JMS band teacher Charlie Mercier said his beginning band students have been using a lunchroom as classroom space.

“I won’t have to push a cart down to the high school anymore,” Mercier said. “I will be able to teach in a classroom.”

JMS has between 80 and 90 band students with 100 students expected to be a part next year. JHS has 100-110 band students in two concert bands.

“This is my ninth year here, and when we both start teaching (here), it will be the first time that one of us has not had to teach a class in a lunchroom,” Bromley said.

Mercier said having the new space will also help with growing participation in the program.

“For everybody to have a space that they can call their own is going to make a big difference in recruitment,” Mercier said.

The new room also has more secure spaces to store equipment and instruments as opposed to storing instruments in a band trailer.

Having the classrooms in the same building will allow the band teachers to get to know both sets of students. Giving Bromley the opportunity to talk to the middle school.

“Our kids need to have nice facilities,” Principal Kendall Jackson said. “They deserve that and they are getting it, so we are excited about them having that opportunity.”

The band room was paid for through state bond funding for the school system.