When a Small Town Grasps Its Future

Introduction
At the Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration (CCOSA) Summer Leadership Conference 2018, Shannon Vanderburg, superintendent of Frederick Public Schools, when asked if his school had a mentoring program, enthusiastically shared much information and said to contact Lance Bohannon. Lance was encouraged to share Frederick's story as a multi-faceted model for other rural communities. 

In 2006, members of the Frederick Rotary Club were discussing the town’s past and its future. Like so many small, rural, agriculture-based towns in southwest Oklahoma, Frederick had a "golden age" from the 1940s to the 1960s. Now, it seemed the town’s best days were behind it. The question was asked, “If we achieved excellence once, why can’t we now?”  And in a defining moment, a group of Rotarians decided to reach beyond what seemed possible and craft a plan to once again “own” the city’s future.  It wasn’t a matter of asking for permission from the government, or finding grants or benefactors.  It was a matter of identifying and prioritizing those factors that would make people want to live in our town, and raising private, local funds to make those factors real.  We began the hard work of becoming more than we were.

We began with our schools. We believed that people move to different neighborhoods and even to different towns to get their kids into top-tier schools. We believed that we could make Frederick Public Schools a regional magnet. Professional people could continue to work in the three larger cities around us but live in Frederick and put their kids in Frederick Public Schools. The goal for us was to provide a superior education, along with a superior learning experience for our kids…to equip them to compete aggressively and confidently in a big world. Along with that we became intentional about leveraging some of the natural benefits to kids from small-town living…strong identity and accountability, more leadership opportunities, more one-on-one mentoring/teaching access, and greater safety. In 2018, we believe that we are winning.  We can point to one set of factors and four initiatives that have made the difference:

1.  We started with a school administrative team that is extraordinarily gifted in vision, creativity, flexibility, resourcefulness, good management, and integrity.  Shannon Vanderburg is our superintendent; Randy Biggs, our high school principal; Jeremy Newton, our middle school principal; and Kay Cabaniss and Janice Crume, our elementary and Pre-K directors. The room for improvement was largely in the faculty. Through natural attrition, well-recruited/vetted hires, and, some believe, a good bit of Providence over a period of about six years, our faculty is now made up (almost entirely) of over-achievers and super-stars.  We treat our teachers as heroes in our town because we know that all they have to do to get healthy pay raises is to drive 30 miles (to Texas). 

2.  We understood that offering a “superior” education meant offering learning opportunities well beyond those required for state and federal compliance. These have fallen into four initiatives:  

A) Big Topics is a weekly discussion group, sponsored by the Rotary Club, for high school students designed to help them develop their skills in critical thinking.  We treat topics that may be controversial or hard to treat inside the classroom:  American exceptionalism, the effect of political correctness on our decision-making, the proper role and scope of government, race, religion, and current events.  It is a privately funded scholarship program that, in seven years, has collected and distributed $70,000 in scholarships. 

Last year, we introduced the concept into middle school-age kids with a pilot “summer academy” we call “Bomber YELL”.  We began with two hours of lecture/discussion in the morning, followed by lunch and life skills (budgeting, sewing, changing a tire, etc.) in the afternoon, and ending at the municipal swimming pool.  It was more successful than we anticipated, and we continued the initiative into the school year with so many kids signing up for it, we had to offer two sessions.  Two Rotarians lead these initiatives:  Ben Crawford leads Big Topics, and Roxie Hill leads Bomber YELL.    

B) Robotics  - In 2011 a Frederick High School alumnus from the class of 1963 was

Team 7506, Aug. 2018

named the top engineer in the world by the international Society of Automotive Engineers.  Dr. Bob Woods has been a professor of engineering at the University of Texas for over 30 years.  When we asked him if other FHS alums had followed the path that he had blazed his answer was, “No”.  That conversation gave rise to the establishment of a robotics program in Frederick High School that, from its very first year of competition, has earned high honors at state and regional level, beating out bigger, richer, more established schools in specific areas as documentation and programming.  The program has opened the door to a whole new career field for our students that was closed to them before 2011.  Dr. Woods continues to mentor and encourage our students with periodic visits and evaluations. Tom Hensley, a retired air traffic controller from the U.S. Air Force, is our gifted robotics coach.

Clint Reid, FB photo

C)  Art  -  A few years back a young art instructor, Clint Reid, joined the faculty.  Traditionally, art in the district was built largely around art history and some coaching in different media…oils, watercolor, and pencil. Clint introduced a new career path to our kids in graphic arts and commercial design. They have established a money-making business by designing and crafting silk-screened T-shirts and apparel for custom orders. This spring, one of our students was named one of the top ten finalists in the nation for graphic/commercial design.

Carisa Schreiner, FB photo

D) Music – Frederick has a deep musical heritage dating back to the 40s and 50s when the city boasted 13-14 private piano/voice teachers. Frederick schools have been competitive at the district and state levels for many years, but never on such a large scale as now. Carisa Schreiner is the music director for all the schools (working with 400 students/day). Every year, she leads musical productions for both the middle school and the high school. The art department builds the sets, the jazz band provides the accompaniment and the choir perform the roles. Last year, with a total high school population of 200, 120 kids participated in the musical. At district and state competitions FHS “punches above its weight” competing successfully against larger, richer schools. FHS graduates are frequent recipients of music scholarships to colleges and universities.

Performance of Carisa Schreiner's students, FB photo

Concurrently with the initiatives to make our schools a regional magnet, we began an effort to develop a deep bench of young leadership in the community to drive the various projects we needed to ensure the bright future we envisioned. There was an existing effort called Leadership Frederick that we resurrected and re-energized. For many years, much of the leadership in the community had been provided by two extraordinary men who brought talent and resources to the community. Bill Crawford was a regional leader in banking and investments, and Loyd Benson was the Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. They, however, had not planned for their own succession. They were very helpful in bringing Leadership Frederick back to life. At the last Chamber of Commerce banquet, I asked Loyd to count the number of heads at the head table that was over 45 years old. There were two…the keynote speaker and his wife. And the room was filled with 30- and 40-somethings who were energized and committed to the vision of making the town better than it is.

In addition to developing young, local leadership, we have been intentional in cultivating the interests and support of Frederick High School alums that live away from Frederick. We have asked them to help with finding solutions to local challenges. We have found they are pleased and complimented to be asked and have contributed both financial and intellectual heft to our projects. The class of 1963 has been unusually generous.      

Twelve years after that original conversation among that group of Rotarians, Frederick has a new confidence and optimism that we can grasp our future, that we can pass along big dreams from a little town. And we believe that our experience can serve as a replicable template for other small towns aspiring to be better than they are. We’d welcome the opportunity to visit with anyone who wants to join us in the satisfying task of re-building our communities and, in fact, the nation.   

Lance Bohannon                                                                             

Personal communication June 13, 2018  

Some photos from  http://www.frederickokchamber.org/

See Clint Reid's The Tillman Project, his personal artwork http://tillmanproject.com/

Two visits to Frederick revealed much civic pride, love of its young people and excitement. We also thoroughly enjoyed the Bomber YELL mentees and the community and school people we met.