Band director Iain Novoselich had a sinking suspicion that March 13 would be the last day of school for the year. His gut feeling led him to make his seniors play the farewell song     traditionally played at their Spring Concert. Now he’s left stitching together a bootleg recording of it with pictures of his seniors to give them the best tribute he can in this difficult time

“Not having that capstone moment for the year is kinda hard,” Novoselich said. “All the things at the end aren’t really happening. So, we’re still going forward and putting together a video.”

Like most teachers Novoselich is switching to an online curriculum for students. But as a band director, it means exploring unique solutions to not being able to play together as a group.

“We can’t get students together in real time right now to play music together so that’s the biggest challenge.” Novoselich said  “I think the other part is shared with most of my colleagues, making students who are learning in their own hands without anybody there to kind of monitor real time or have daily check-ins face to face is a challenge in itself.”

Not only does Novoselich have to manage a new way of teaching he also has two young sons at home that keep him busy.

“My wife and I are both kinda balancing taking care of the kids,” Novoselich said. “Staying on the computers, communicating, being in Zoom meetings and just kind of doing small projects around the house that we probably would have put off for another five years.”