SUMNER/FREDERICKSBURG - To set the stage on this school, you’d have to know sophomore Sam Kleiss. You might say the theater is in his blood.

He says, "my sister, my oldest one, was in Bye, Bye Birdie and Oklahoma."

But to take this class, he had to leave school and enter the community.
Sumner Community Theater Director Lori Frisch says, "We want our kids to succeed, and I think it takes all aspects of education to help them succeed."

Community theater isn't really a course, and its director isn't really a teacher. But the experience has taught Sam things he never could've learned at Sumner-Fredericksburg High School.

He says, "I can speak a lot better and be a better public speaker. Like in English, I do better, get better grades."

When the school in Sumner started to lose students, it lost state money, started sharing classes with a neighboring town, and began cutting student programs.

It's been three years since audience members have sat in the high school auditorium for a student play. The district had difficulty convincing a current teacher to take on extra responsibility for a small stipend. As a result, the school's not sure if the drama program will ever take the stage again.

Biology teacher Paul Swenson says, "There was a group of kids who was really enjoying it and it's just done."

Teachers say they can only control their classrooms, not extracurriculars, therefore students might not get the most out of school.

Swenson says, "When you have to pinch down to the bare minimum, things get cut that shouldn't get cut."

Before the community theater stepped in, Sam says he shied away from public settings.

"Now I'm nervous for other people, because I hope they know what they're doing so they don't make me look bad."

Sometimes it really does take a village to raise a child.

Frisch says, "Maybe this is what he'll want to do."

By filling a void, this group gives students like Sam an opportunity to act on the future.

Email Josh Hinkle at Josh.Hinkle@kcrg.com

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Sumner/Fredericksburg aired 11/23/06

Small schools are frequently what hold a community together. When communities lose their schools, they lose more than a building – they often lose their economic and cultural centerpiece. As the story in Sumner shows, often a community doesn’t want to give up on a school simply because administrators are making cuts.

I felt particularly attached to this story, because the same thing happened at my high school. Because of budget cuts and a staff shortage, the drama program got axed. For a while though, there was no outlet for students. Eventually, by the time I was in high school, a group of residents had formed a community theater… and many students began to participate. It was very interesting to see students in an outlet they’d never had before…a first chance at acting, writing scripts, building sets, making costumes. Students were giving back to their community in a new way and gaining something for themselves for the future.

Some of the student actors from my community theater went on to study theater in college. The community theater group still operates every year and still utilizes students. It draws in hundreds of people to watch the performances each show, something that might not have been possible had the community not wanted to help out. It’s a give-and-take that you don’t see until the opportunity presents itself. For my town and Sumner, only by the elimination of a school activity did students truly get involved in the community in this capacity.

In a way, success breeds success. My town’s confidence grew in this area, and residents saw the school as an investment of sorts. The students were taken under a wing. The school belonged to the community.
Email Josh Hinkle with thoughts on this topic at Josh.Hinkle@KCRG.com.

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