Each Pennsylvania school district is handling high school sporting events at its own discretion.

At Tuesday night’s Tamaqua school board meeting, the plan for the school’s marching band and cheerleaders for Saturday’s football game against Lehighton was unveiled.

“The band will be performing from our middle school parking lot pregame and during the game, along with the cheerleaders,” said Tamaqua Superintendent Ray Kinder. “We will be reaching out to be making sure that all of our assigned spots will be utilized.”

Kinder said that the board supported the administration’s recommendation to maintain the 250-person limit within the stadium itself.

He reiterated that the decision will be on a game-by-game basis, as pandemic regulations are rapidly changing.

“We’ve had conversations with our band officers, band advisers and cheerleading adviser over the last week to talk about some alternatives,” Kinder said. “The band students have been tremendous in dealing with the disappointment, as well as coming up with ways in which they can still perform and display their talents.”

There were no physical hearings at Tuesday’s meeting, however a total of seven Tamaqua senior band members submitted heartfelt comments that were read during the session.

“I am extremely disheartened to find out that I will never be given the opportunity to enjoy my last Friday night with my classmates,” a submission read.

Another student’s submission read, “We were blindly given false hope, as we believed this opportunity would give us a sense of normalcy. To make it even worse, we were told that football parents were more of a priority than us. … It’s not like we can all just get our instruments and play from home, that’s not how it works.”

“We’re all dealing with a very difficult situation and it certainly adds tension to everybody’s lives at a time that is extremely tense,” Kinder said. “It’s our hope that this is something that is at least satisfactory for now and is something that we can build off to make it better.”

Districts across the state face similar challenges, as the Wolf administration still plans to apply its limits on gatherings to high school sporting events: 250 people for outdoor events, and 25 for indoor events.

“They would like the opportunity to perform on the field at some point for a band show or field show,” Kinder said. “We hope to give them that opportunity at one of the upcoming games; possibly either before the game, or on a night of its own, or both, so we can get as many people as possible together to see their talents.

Tamaqua’s first 2020 home varsity football game is slated for Saturday at 1 p.m.

“We are looking at each one of these games separately,” Kinder said. “We do not know what the rules and regulations will be from week to week. This will be our plan for the first game. We will be working to expand our opportunities as much as we can moving forward.”

For a video on Kinder’s announcement, visit www.tnonline.com.