Dance TeamThe Twin Cedars Community School District board of trustees is expected to decide in favor of funding a school dance team. Twin Cedars, a small country school with about 500 K-12 students, has never had the benefit of having a dance team. Two years ago, three Twin Cedars students got together with their dance instructor, Shannon Smith, a Twin Cedars alumna, and suggested that the school should have a dance team. Smith volunteered his time to coach and choreograph a new dance team. Smith brought this idea to Twin Cedars principal 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 were to be a dance team, all funds would have to be raised only by the dance team members and Smith would have to volunteer all of her time and efforts 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 fundraisers and asked for donations from local businesses to support the new team and help pay for the dance team's costumes. The team managed to raise enough to buy cheap costumes for all members. The new dance team practiced two days a week at 7 a.m. year-round. They performed at a few football and basketball games throughout the year. The next school year came and the whole process was repeated. During this year the dance team also managed to put on a Saturday night show at the school, which included other exercise and dance teams from the surrounding school. In the two years of the team's existence, school administrators have granted use of the building for practices, allowed the team to perform at sporting events, and allowed the team to hold performances. In addition to that, they announced the dance team as the Twin Cedars Dance Team and also added a new spot in the Twin Cedars Yearbook to allow for photos of the dance team. The school took on all the privileges of having a school dance team, but took on none of the responsibilities that a school has for an extracurricular activity.