At their meeting on Wednesday, the Washington Community School Board made the decision to cut the fifth grade band offering. Washington Band Director Don Hughes gave a presentation to the board, “Reasons why, there has been a declining number of fifth graders, the number of kids that are starting has been getting lower and lower every year. We are at just over thirty this year, and that’s small. The increase at the middle school has been going up, we see more and more. This leads to the incessant need to restart the entire group. So all the kids that have been in fifth grade band are getting this redundant education, they are sitting there waiting for these other kids to catch up with them and it takes the good part of a semester.  After some discussion about what the change will mean for each school, the board voted unanimously to no longer offer fifth grade band. Band for Washington students will begin in sixth grade.