(WABI) -As Maine tries to settle on whether or not to allow high school sports this fall, there are hundreds of music students also wondering about their extracurricular activities.

The outlook for practicing and performing together is not good.

“On August 1st, the Maine CDC and Department of Ed announced that winds and singing can no longer happen indoors,” said Michael Remy, the Music Director at MDI High School. “They initially said that they should be suspended altogether, which was not the best choice of wording, and led to some unfortunate decisions in some parts of the state.”

“The Department of Education used the word “requirement’ and ‘recommendation’ kind of interchangeably,” added Maine Music Education Association President Sandra Barry. “But when you see the word ‘suspend,’ that doesn’t really feel like there’s much wiggle room with that.”

Some schools have cancelled their music programs for this school year. Others are only learning virtually. All need the time to grow.

I really enjoy the performance aspect, and just going out and performing something,”said Gavin Tarling, a senior in the now suspended South Portland High School marching band. “I’ve also met so many incredible people in the music program. Like I have some friends that graduated last year that are going to college for things like musical theatre and music performance and stuff like that. The people are definitely the biggest part of it for me.”

Music programs have to follow Department of Education Guidelines, and stay 14 feet apart while also being masked when they’re together. That goes for in-class instruction, and after school music programs like Marching Band, or Jazz Choir.

When the MPA recommended last week that all high school sports be played under different guidelines, it left some in the non-sports community wondering what separated one from another.

“We’re all hurting,” Barry said. “We’re all missing terribly the things that we miss. And everything looks different. Yet, here come different decisions about the same behavior that have the same exact impact on our community. And that’s troubling, puzzling, saddening to us. We have worked to reach out to the CDC for clarification. ‘Can you please tell us and show us the science of the data that you’ve been using to make your decisions? And can you please explain to us how it is different from athletics versus singing and playing?’ Because, we will adapt.”

Ultimately, like athletics, decisions on whether or not to proceed with music programs, and how to do it safely will be up to each individual district. There’s one thing that everyone seems to agree on.

“It sounds like we have every kid’s best interest at heart,” Barry said. “It doesn’t matter what the activity is. It’s worth doing. And if it’s worth doing then it’s worth doing safely.”

Copyright 2020 WABI. All rights reserved.