At the end of this semester, Richard Saucedo, Director of Bands and performing arts department co-chairperson will retire after teaching at this school for 30 years. Mike Pote, associate Director of Bands and performing arts teacher, will be Director of Bands next year. Despite departure from this school, Saucedo said his musical career is far from over.

“I don’t really feel like I’m retiring,” he said. “I feel like I’m just starting the next segment of my life. I have some neat opportunities that have come my way, and I just feel like it’s probably time for me to move on and try some different things.”

According to Saucedo, his future career includes composing music, judging band competitions and serving as an educational consultant. In addition, he said he will conduct clinics for band directors to promote music education.

“Probably the neatest thing I’ll be doing is that I’ve been asked by a couple schools to kind of be a mentor director for them,” Saucedo said.

Kenzie Gerber, band member and senior, said Saucedo’s departure is bittersweet because students will miss his presence, but they also know he will be pursuing his dreams.

“We’ll miss him for everything he’s done for us,” Gerber said. “You know that he believes in you even from the very start, and even if you go and you mess up everything, he’s going to tell you, ‘I believe in you, I know that you can do this, just keep working at it.’ He really connects with all of his students, and I think that’s what’s really great about Mr. Saucedo.”

In spite of the legacy Saucedo helped create for this school, Gerber said she thinks the band program under Pote will continue to be phenomenal.

“I think he’s going to keep creating this culture of excellence that we’ve always been taught,” she said.

According to Pote, the selection process for director of bands was a nationwide search with a three-round interview process.

“There were two sit-down interviews and one conducting interview where each candidate worked with one of the bands here for a certain amount of time,” he said.

Pote said he feels prepared for his ascension to director of bands due to the many years of experience he has accumulated here. Also, he said there will not be any radical changes next year because all the members of the band program have helped develop the personality of the band through the years.

“We’re going to probably look at making some changes in who teaches what on a daily basis,” he said. “There will be subtle changes, but for the most part, the overall concepts will be the same.”

Saucedo said he has learned a lot in the past 30 years, but he will best remember rehearsals where everything was really working and coming together.

“There was this energy and excitement  I’ve never felt anywhere else, or in anything else that I’ve done in my life,” Saucedo said.

Gerber said, “He’s a really incredible person. His impact on the school is so profound that I don’t think we even realize or recognize how great it is.”