The start of classes Aug. 17 at Allen County Community College capped a frenetic month for Bryan and Michelle Summers.
In the span of three weeks, the Summerses traveled from their home in Oregon to Iola to interview for teaching positions at ACCC; received word in the midst of their three-day drive back to the Oregon that they had been hired; and returned to Kansas 10 days later, less than week before classes began.
Michelle is the school’s new director of vocal music. Bryan teaches part time as ACCC’s director of instrumental music.
The “part time” label is a bit of a misnomer, Michelle said.
“It just means he doesn’t have as many classes as I do,” she said. “He’ll be here just as much, working just as hard as I am.”
And with classes already in high gear, coupled with the start of rehearsals for the college’s fall musical in October, neither Bryan nor Michelle have had much of a chance to catch their breath, much less find a new home and get settled.
“It’s been pretty crazy,” Bryan admitted. “But it’s great to be back here.”
Bryan, the son of Wanda and the late Bob Summers, is a 1977 Iola High School graduate. Bob Summers taught choir at Iola High School and briefly at ACCC.
Wanda Summers and a number of other relatives still call Iola or southeast Kansas home.
The Summerses, for the time being, are staying with relatives until a more permanent housing situation can be arranged.
“While we were looking for jobs, we’d always had Kansas in the back of our minds because of my relatives here,” Bryan said.
The Summerses, who met while they were in the Air Force, were married in December 2000 before completing their military service. They took up teaching jobs in neighboring school districts near their former home in Sisters, Ore.
For all of Sisters’ appeal — situated in a high desert area east of the Cascade Mountains, the community is in the midst of some of the most picturesque terrain in the country — it also was among those most ravaged by the recent recession.
Bryan was one of several teachers let go as his employers pared $1.6 million from their district’s budget in 2009.
And Michelle’s bosses in Sisters could not give any promises past the upcoming school year that her teaching job would be secure.
“Both of our building principals were very supportive,” Michelle said. “But that area was hit so hard by the economy. They would have 100 applicants for a single teaching position.”
BRYAN’S yearlong job search afforded the couple an opportunity to work together on a pair of projects.
Michelle’s students in Sisters put together a production last fall of “Fiddler On The Roof,” the school’s first ever full-scale musical.
Bryan assisted his wife.
“Fiddler” was received so well by the community that Michelle decided on a second production last spring, with “Grease.” Again, Bryan assisted.
Much like “Fiddler,” “Grease” drew an overwhelming response from the community.
“The crowds got larger for each night of ‘Fiddler On The Roof,’ to the point that the audience was probably twice the size of the audience on opening night,” Bryan recalled. “And then it doubled again for ‘Grease.’”
The productions did more than give the school some much-appreciated exposure. It also proved that Bryan and Michelle could function well together in a work setting and was vital in their subsequent job search, which by then had expanded to include southeast Kansas.
Michelle was eyeing an elementary school teaching position in Iola, when Bryan decided to check the ACCC website. There, he saw an opening for a part-time instrumental music instructor.
A phone conversation a day later with Jon Marshall, ACCC’s vice president for academic affairs, was a bit serendipitous.
“He told me that he had learned, just that day, that ACCC also was losing its full-time vocal music instructor,” Bryan recalled.
The Summerses put in their applications and were invited days later to an extensive job interview July 28 and 29.
“We stayed in Iola a few days after the interviews to catch up with relatives because we weren’t sure the next time we’d be back,” Michelle said.
The “next time” was less than two weeks later.
LEAVING a community that was supportive of it students, and the arts in general, required “a leap of faith,” Michelle said.
It’s one the couple is confident will pay off due to Allen County’s similar levels of support. The ACCC choir has about 40 students enrolled. The instrumental band has about 20, but is growing.
“We’ve had four days of classes,” Bryan said Wednesday afternoon. “We’ve gained a member each day so far.”
The key, Michelle said, is to make her classes and projects informative and fun.
“Learning can be fun,” she said. “It’s supposed to be fun.”
The Summerses share an office as well.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve worked together,” Michelle said with a chuckle, pointing to their work on “Fiddler On The Roof” and “Grease.” “But this is the first time we can work together and actually have Bryan get paid.”
THE SUMMERSES are eager to work with Tony and Terri Piazza in the upcoming ACCC musical production “Into The Woods,” a fractured fairy tale blending the stories of Cinderella, Rapunzel and others. The production is a joint affair with ACCC’s music and drama departments.
Auditions for the musical portion began this week, and a full slate of rehearsals will follow soon. In addition, the Summerses already are considering themes for their fall concert.
“I’m thinking something to do with the 1970s,” Bryan said, complete with disco music, bell-bottom pants and platform shoes. “Kids today call 70s clothes retro. I call it what I wore. I don’t know if any of the kids have heard of leisure suits.”
And their brief time in the community already has reintroduced Bryan to several classmates he hadn’t seen in several years.
“After high school, I pretty much left the area,” he said. “It’s been 30 years since I’ve seen most of these people.”
In addition to warm greetings, Bryan also brings levity in catching-up sessions with old friends.
“I usually ask them if they have a place to sell, and if they’d like a place to buy,” he said with a laugh. “We need to sell our home in Oregon. We’ll get you a good price.”
