i love this school. I have a lot of friends i don't have any enemies. out of all 6 teachers theres only one that i really dislike. i love my classes. they could ease up on the homework

Posted by a other on 10/21/12

Eustis Middle School has a great staff, who cares about the students.

Posted by a parent on 09/19/09

We are an A rated school, there is great care and involvement from the parents. We have a very large student band, where kids of all social ecomonic back grounds get a chance to play an instrument.

Posted by a parent on 09/16/09

I think this is a very great school from the top of my heart!

Posted by a student on 04/30/09

This is a great school. Teachers educate the children wonderful. Im very proud of how this school has increased!

Posted by a parent on 04/05/09

This middle school has friendly staff and above average organizational skills when it comes to keeping the students on course. They fall short on communication between teachers and parents on a weekly basis, I only hear from my son's teachers at progress report time.

Posted by a parent on 01/06/09

The bathrooms are nasty the teachers are bad. Always making the children mad.

Posted by a parent on 11/30/08

We have been thrilled with the music/band program. Mr Gerry Ricke (director) does a great job educating and motivating in a classroom of respect. The level I Mustang Jazz band again received superior ratings in 2007 and is well positioned to take national awards at various festivals this year keeping ... Read more

Posted by a parent on 02/22/07

Great Band Program and good advanced classes. Overall it is a very good school.

Posted by a student on 06/15/06

The music program is wonderful. The teacher is devoted to the joy of music education. Great Jazz. I found dealing with administration to be difficult as often they jumped to conclusions that were later found to be wrong.

Posted by a parent on 12/29/05

August 12 Music Association Meeting

To All Band Families,

We are all getting together for our first meeting this Monday evening.
Meeting last only about a half hour.

This month we will be speaking about our first fundraiser.
Band Banquet ideas so we can all make an informed vote on the next months meeting.
New fundraising ideas.
Local support.
Our new sponsor United In Praise and their upcoming concert season.
And to work on our contact list for this year.

Please if you are a parent , grandparent, aunt or uncle or older sibling come on to the meeting. We are a band family and everybody's opinion counts. Plus we can always use a fresh mind with fresh ideas.

The band is almost completely self funded so it does take as many of us as possible. Not everyone can attend every meeting, not everyone can volunteer for an entire field trip. However there are many many places in our committee for as many voices as we can get!

We appreciate you and hope to see you Monday!
Cherrice Purvee

Sunday, August 4, 2013

The Commodores PSA

Please enjoy this PSA. Music Matters!

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Last nights First Friday Street Fest

What a blast last night was.

The Eustis Mustang Music Association was out raising money for the band program. Our number one goal was to collect money that would be used to repair instruments that would be needed for our scholarship programs. This would be part of the program where a child who can not afford an instrument has the use of one for the school year. This means that the instrument must be repaired and in perfect working condition prior to adopting it out.

We were able to raise funds and awareness to our programs and concerts.
We also appreciate all the upcoming 6th grade band students who came over to say hello. And it was nice seeing our returning 7th and 8th graders especially those wearing their band shirts!

The highlight of the evening is when a local musician came up. He is known by Jungle.... we picked up the drum sticks and started to jam out. Swirlin and twirlin the sticks. He was a high school band member that never grew out of music and even has his own CD out. Not a Eustis Native Jungle fits right in here at the downtown Eustis Area. Downtown for down to earth people!

Winners from last nights drawings were:

Jorge Caller who won a free dinner for two at Sol De Mexico Restuarant

We appreciate our great sponsors for that donated item!

Also the winner of free sponsorship for the year is Katie Williams from The Hair Cuttery in Eustis

Congratulations!

Friday, July 26, 2013

First Friday Street Fest

We Are Invited to the First Friday Street Fest!

The Eustis Middle School Mustang Band will have a spot at the First Friday Street Fest this coming Friday evening. Our tent will be at the end of Magnolia or Eustis Street.

It is the perfect time for the community to come meet some of our students. As well as view some of the progress we made last year.

Yes this is a fundraiser so we will have us an old fashion drawing.
For a donation you can win tickets to our Annual Jazz Review.
This is our largest Fundraiser of the year! It is an evening of great Jazz and good food.

Or enter to win FREE sponsorship for your small business. We are doing a business card drawing. For a donation you can drop your business card in the drawing bucket and win free sponsorship for the next entire school year! Come show your support this Friday!

We are raising the bar on just what our band members can achieve. We are so lucky to have some of the top role models in of our school in our program that it helped create The Mustang Caring For School And Community Program.

Raising this bar means The Mustang Music Association has to raise the funds to pay for the improvements.

Improvements that include a scholarship program for the underprivileged youth of our city and also a scholarship program for upcoming high school graduates. The MCSC Program covers everyone in our community. From a student who can not afford to pay for instruction books or an instrument to helping community programs in our area with various food and clothing drives all the way to our EMMA Award that is given to a music student who participates in the Eustis band program for the entire middle school and high school years.

With this program we feel we are helping our young youth by creating a caring environment that teaches our students to care about the community while scoring higher on test and in college degrees with the help of Mr. Gerald Ricke's strict program. By using The EMMA Award to reward a student for their dedication we are promoting what research backs up.

If a student is apart of a long term music education research proves they are 80 percent more likely to obtain a bachelors degree or higher.
Our program is important to the future of our community. And everyone that lives in it.

If you are a former or current Mustang please stop by and say Hi!

If you are available to help with this event please email us at eustismustangmusicassociation@gmail.com.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Instrument Adoption Program

The Eustis Music Association is driven by a passion to promote music education. The Foundation's mission is supported and accomplished through raising money for music scholarships, donating musical instruments and products to the under-privileged, and donating the use of music instruments to the music education community.

Lots of families have used musical instruments that their children have outgrown or simply no longer use, and they are just taking up space. Now you can give another child the joy of music and a tax deduction.

"From the minute a child is taught how to play an instrument, he's no longer poor. He becomes a child in progress, heading for a professional level, who'll later become a citizen" - Maestro Jose Abreu, founder of El Sistema music program.

Allowing for the advantage of re-testing, the results of the study revealed that there is significant improvement for underprivileged children in the the following areas:

Receptive and expressive Language
Letter ID
Puzzle assembly
Numeracy in the areas of verbal counting, and estimation magnitudes
Fluid and quantitative reasoning
Critical thinking

Research has proven this over and over again. Although the results could not conclusively say that music training by itself is responsible for the increase in these areas of cognitive thinking for underprivileged children, it does support the hypothesis that music can be highly effective as a means to an end, the end being improved cognitive function and increased IQ.

What the studies show is that the small group and one-on-one interactions with teachers provided increased opportunities for attention training and training in social interaction, both of which are listed as lacking in school aged children in surveys conducted amongst teachers by the Pew Research Group.

In an age where the forms of stimulation commonly craved by underprivileged children can be counterproductive to positive thought and interaction, music provides an outlet to stimulate healthy cognitive and expressive development. Music can also reinforce positive social interactions and provide much needed opportunities for attention span development. It is becoming more evident that music and social development for all children (especially underprivileged children) go hand in hand.

Click here to fill out our instrument adoption form.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

We Work Together!

Nobody said It would be easy!

The only question is how much of your time and energy you are willing

to give. The amount will strongly determine the

possible end goals of the band.

The first step is to commit to the number of rehearsals per week. One practice hour per day is a bare minimum to make anything happen, and anything more than three is a recipe for not getting other important things done. So be sure to check it as you go along to make sure that you have not given up more of your life than you feel comfortable.

If some people in a band are intent on “making it” while others just want to have a good time making music and having fun, you are dead in the water. The gung ho members will continuously resent the lack of commitment on the part of the casual guys, and the casuals will similarly resent the endless impinging on their lives for band duties.

That is why The Eustis Middle School Mustang Band is a family and a team! We work together to inspire each other.

http://www.eustismiddleband.com/

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Interesting school review.... says band program is top notch!

Eustis Middle School

School Overview

17 Parent Reviews for Eustis Middle School