Some band students spend much of their time practicing for band, but it’s not as much as their teacher spends on the band program.

Although Ms. Allison Phelps, the new band director, loves her job, she said it takes up most of her time.

“I get to the middle school at 7:10,” Phelps said. “I leave here (the high school) after five. On game nights, I leave at 11.”

Phelps leads the middle and high school bands in the Kearsley district.

Phelps’ appreciation for music started when she was young.

When Phelps was in middle school, she joined band.

“I almost quit,” Phelps said. “People always made fun of the band geeks. But then I realized that I shouldn’t care about what others think.”

Phelps remained in band throughout the rest of her school years.

Her freshman year of high school, she went to band camp for marching band.

That’s where she fell in love.

“By the end of my freshman year, I realized that I wanted to do this for the rest of my life,” Phelps said. “I didn’t want to leave.”

Phelps went to Central Michigan University in the fall of 2010. She then graduated from CMU in May 2016.

Phelps graduated with two degrees — instrumental music education and clarinet performance.

“It (CMU) was the best school on the planet,” Phelps said.

Before working here as a band director, Phelps worked as a substitute teacher and found that she did not like the job very well.

“It was the worst,” Phelps said. “I would not want to ever do that again.”

This year is the first year that Phelps has worked at Kearsley, and she loves her job thus far.

“I do because everyone is very excited about the change,” she said.

Her work is taxing, though.

When Phelps gets home, she said that she doesn’t get any sort of work done.

“I’m not good at working at home. Once I get home, I stop thinking about band stuff,” Phelps said. “I sometimes go immediately to bed.”

If she had more time, she said she would get a pet.

“I want to get a dog at some point, but I don’t have the time to let it out during the day,” she said.

Phelps also said that she would go hiking more.

“When I was in college, I had a class where we hiked the Appalachian Trail,” Phelps said.

She said she enjoyed that so much that she would like to do it again.

Because Phelps always has the best interest of her students in mind, she said she would do two things if she had an unlimited amount of money. One for herself and one for her students.

“I’ve always wanted to go to Japan, but I’d buy top quality instruments for the school,” Phelps said.