Pequea Valley music teacher Jim Ackerman's Rock Band program has grown into four unique bands at both the high school and middle school levels.

Started in 2021, the program has grown from being strictly an after-school program to now receiving class time, along with the typical after-school club format.

With that growth, which now includes 21 students, new equipment was deemed to be necessary. For the second time, Ackerman was recently awarded a grant from Music for Everyone, which has allowed the program to obtain new guitars.

"As they've grown, we needed more instruments and better ones, higher-quality things," Ackerman said. "They're playing at a high level ... I went to a little meeting; they had a celebration for all the people that win the grants."

Pequea Valley's Rock Band students primarily practice and record covers of well-known songs, with some originals mixed in. Some of their work is uploaded to YouTube; several videos have over 1,000 views. Seach "PV Rock Bands" on the platform to view the students' performances.

A student band known as "Side Eye Grace" covered "Eye in the Sky" by the Alan Parsons Project; the video currently has over 37,000 views on YouTube.

"They want to recreate the songs that they like and they know," Ackerman said.

The high school bands meet once a week for two and a half hours, while the middle school bands meet every day during school hours while the class is in session. The bands do some more traditional performances at school events, as well as their own concert that will be performed at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 21, in the auditorium at Pequea Valley Secondary, 164 S. New Holland Road, Kinzers. It will be the farewell performance for "Into the Mayhem."

At a special event this year, the high school students got the chance to perform at Levitt Pavillion at SteelStacks in Bethlehem on May 17, along with local school rock bands from across the area.

"When they find a venue to play, it's self-expression and it's also confidence," Ackerman said. "These kids are really confident. They're on YouTube, and they've got thousands of people looking at them."

The Rock Band's integration into Pequea Valley's academic curriculum is part of a larger effort within the district known as "Mass Customized Learning" and "First Choice Initiatives."

The programs are designed to better prepare students for the workforce, turning their interests into possible career options. PV First Choice fosters options within the military, the culinary world, trades and more by helping students get work study and internships, along with classes.

"They are really trying to find things for people to do that they're interested in, find a niche and a direction early on and supporting it," Ackerman said. "When I went to school, you were college prep or not ... that was kind of it."