Hillsboro to stop stocking instruments

Hillsboro school district will sell most of its more than 100 band instruments, the school board decided Monday.

Enough will be retained to provide loaner instruments as needed. But the school will expect most students’ parents to buy their own instruments.

“I didn’t realize we got into that business, that we were buying instruments,” superintendent Max Heinrichs said. “I thought people were buying their instruments. When my kids were in school we bought their instruments.”

The high school band has 10 to 20 members, but band in fifth through eighth grades has around 40 students, which could increase the number of instruments needed if Hillsboro continued to provide them.