A response to an article in our local paper about the ACLU suing the state over fees for extracurricular activities. As our school’s Band Booster president, this is an issue near and dear to my heart.

Dear Ms. Smith and ACLU representatives:

You are cordially invited to accompany the Point Loma High School Marching Band to this weekend’s regional Field Tournament in Riverside (our last tournament out of five this season). We could use a few more chaperones on the bus (the buses are paid for this year with a 21^st Century Grant, but that won’t cover the hotel rooms required for the bus drivers) and help with loading the truck (rental: $174; fuel: around $80). We will treat you to lunch and snacks (some of the students arrive not having eaten breakfast), paid for through donations to the PLHS Band Boosters. Be sure to admire our new uniforms, paid for by a generous, one-time donation – and a few new instruments – paid for by Proposition S monies and Band Boosters.

It’s too bad you had to miss us at our home football games this year. There, you could have purchased numerous items at the Pointer Store – homemade earrings from our new Dance team; homemade beanies from Cheer; T-shirts, sweatshirts and swag from the Football team; calendars from Aquatics; scarves, commemorative pillows and blankets from band, and clappers from the Cross Country team.

And you just missed our Pointer Association meeting, where board members gave $4500 in grants to pay for a kiln for the art department, materials for a Science Department project, a variety of needs for NJROTC, books for the Social Studies Department, books for the English Department, and expenses for uniforms, lockers, helmets, a locker room attendant for the Athletics and Physical Education departments – with money raised through e-scrip and donations.

Back to the band: You also missed our small performance ensembles playing at Ace Hardware a few weeks ago – and our big prize- playing at the Grand Opening of Ralph’s Sports Arena, where we were awarded a generous check. We have many community partners who thankfully see a value in school music. We work hard to establish and grow those relationships.

Back to the bus. Make sure, when you’re riding with a bunch of sleepy, tired students who played their hearts out that day, that you offer your ideas on how, in the face of never-ending budget cuts from the state, they would otherwise be on that bus without donations and fundraisers. On how education is free. We’re all ears.

It’s hard not to overuse OR under-use them. The Chicago Manual of Style says this:

The comma, perhaps the most versatile of the punctuation marks, indicates the smallest interruption in the continuity of thought or sentence structure. There are a few rules governing its use that have become almost obligatory. Aside from these, the use of the comma is mainly a matter of good judgment, with ease of reading the end in view.

A few rules:

1. If you have a compound sentence composed of a series of short independent clauses, the last two of which are joined by a conjunction, place a comma between the clauses and before the conjunction.

Example: I want a soda, some popcorn, and a few napkins.

2. It’s OK to use semicolons if the clauses themselves contain commas.

Speaking of semicolons: Use them to mark a more important break in sentence flow than if you used a comma. Always use a semicolon between two parts of a compound sentence when they are not connected by a conjunction.

Example:  Connie says she intends to go to Europe this summer; however, she has made no definite plans.

3.  Colons: Use to  indicate a sequence in thought between two clauses that form a single sentence, or to separate one clause from a second clause that contains an illustration or amplification of the first.

Example: She drove all night: that’s why she was particularly nasty the following morning.

Apostrophes are everywhere. People seem to love using them – but many times, they aren’t used appropriately. The only time you need an apostrophe is when you’re showing possession – i.e., this is Kerri’s blog; and with contractions – don’t, won’t, it’s. But remember:

• Its is the possessive of the pronoun it, like hers, theirs, ours, yours. (Something belongs to “it.”)
• It’s is the contraction for it is.

Contractions get a little hairy with proper names. If you are writing that the Smith family owns a red Porsche 911, it would be the Smiths’ red Porsche 911. If John Smith owns a red Porsche 911, it would be John Smith’s red Porsche 911. However, if you are creating a return address label for the Smith Family, it might read:

The Smiths
222 Fairfield Lane

You don’t use an apostrophe in this case because you aren’t implying possession.

While we’re on contractions – they’re OK to use, but I recommend that you don’t use these:

it’ll                                        could’ve

should’ve                            that’s

you’d                                     would’ve

This isn’t a hard and fast rule; it can vary depending on the formality of the material.

Look out in the world: you’ll find many examples of misused apostrophes. Here’s one from a recent e-mail:

Menu idea’s – this isn’t a possessive or a contraction. A common example of a common problem – using apostrophes with a plural.

The Internet is full of examples of apostrophe misuse – or abuse. Check it out! You’ll be amused – or maybe aghast.