Dance TeamThe Twin Cedars Community School District board is expected to vote in favor of funding a school dance team. Twin Cedars, a small country school of about 500 students in grades K-12, has never had the benefit of having a dance team. Two years ago, three Twin Cedars students got together with their dance teacher, Shannon Smith, a Twin Cedars alumna, and suggested that the school have a dance team. Smith volunteered his time to coach and choreograph a new dance team. Smith presented this idea to Twin Cedars manager Mike Helle. Helle agreed to allow Smith to start a dance team that could practice at school, but refused to fund the program as an extracurricular activity. This meant that if there was to be a dance team, all funds would have to be raised solely by the dance team members and Smith would have to volunteer all of her time and effort without being paid. Despite these two points, Smith agreed to start the dance team. Auditions were held, a team was formed, and team members began choreographing their first routine. The new TC dance team held their own fundraiser and asked for donations from local businesses to help support the new team and pay for the dance team's costumes. The team managed to raise enough money to buy inexpensive costumes for all the members. The new dance team practiced two days a week at 7 a.m. all year round. They participated in a few football and basketball games throughout the year. The next school year came and the whole process repeated itself. During this year, the dance team even managed to put on a Saturday evening performance at the school, which included drill and dance teams from other surrounding schools. During the team's two years of existence, school administrators allowed the building to be used for practices, they allowed the team to perform at sporting events, and they allowed the team to organize shows. On top of that, they advertised the dance team as the Twin Cedars Dance Team and even added a new spot in the Twin Cedars directory to allow photos of the dance team. The school has taken all the privileges of having a school dance team, but has taken none of the responsibilities that a school has for an extracurricular activity..