Northeast High School has a marching band again, with hopes it can be permanent.
The band comes courtesy of new funding from the Kansas City Public Schools. Northeast's band director, Ricky Maltbia, said he basically had to start the program all over again from scratch.
"I had instruments but no people to play the instrument. So it was very tough, getting the kids to be interested," Maltbia said.
That's a testament to exposure, Maltbia said.
"Most of the kids had never seen an example of a marching band or band period here at KCPS," he said. "Bringing the culture here, taking the kids to places like William Jewell (College) and showing them examples of bands — I think that helped a lot with recruitment"
- Ricky Maltbia, Northeast High School Band Director
- Adrian Walker, sophomore and drum major at Northeast High School
