The Kuna Kids Are All Right

by Matt Leighninger

April 1, 2000 | | Kuna, ID

None of the residents of Kuna, Idaho, doubted that their town was changing. All they had to do was look at the cars whizzing by on streets that once were quiet and sleepy.

"It's those kids, speeding again!" the old-timers would say, complaining about a town of 4,000 people that suddenly seemed as if it had 40,000 teenagers.

A small group of people knew that the speeding cars and the complaining senior citizens were merely symptoms of much bigger changes taking place in the community. School Superintendent Doug Rutan, Kuna Councilwoman Laurale Neal, and Matt Basinger, the president of the student body at the high school, all recognized that Kuna's explosive growth was affecting everything from school budget decisions to tensions between different age groups. The common denominator in all these concerns was a lack of constructive communication.

Through a grant from a local foundation, all three were able to attend a "public engagement academy" in Wichita, Kansas, in December 1998. The seminar was put on by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, the National School Public Relations Association, and SCRC. While the academy was focused on public education, the Kuna committee felt that study circles would help them address a whole range of community issues.

Once they were committed to making study circles happen in Kuna, the first big hurdle was funding a coordinator. "We realized we needed one person to be in charge and follow through on everything, and that takes time," said Neal. "All of us were enthusiastic but none of us had the time to do it." Gradually, they raised enough money - from the city, school system, sheriff's department, and individuals - to be able to hire Arnette Johnson to coordinate the program.

Meanwhile, the high school students were racing ahead. Basinger was a senior, and he wanted to get study circles going before he graduated in May. The four students who served on the steering committee [for the community-wide study circles] called their part of the program "Teen Talk." They asked for permission to hold the kickoff during a school assembly; the principal gave them 20 minutes. In that tiny span of time, these energetic teen leaders managed to describe the program, invite students to participate, and lead hundreds of students in an "ice-breaker" exercise which illustrated the difficulties of communication. The results were impressive. Over 80 students took part in the Teen Talk circles in the spring semester.

In the fall of 1999, another 80 students were joined in study circles by roughly 80 adults. The groups met all over the community, and brought constructive communication to a new high in Kuna. "In a trying time for our community, people started talking," said Neal. "This got people on their front porches again."

One myth was dispelled in the discussions: When the sheriff and his deputies were asked about the speeding, they said they hadn't pulled over too many young people. Most of the people doing the fast driving were their parents.

The circles also made an impact at the polls. "One of the first results of the circles was that a campaign to recall the school board was soundly defeated," claims Neal. "A small group of people in the community disagreed with the school board's purchase of a piece of property, and wanted to recall them. In the study circles, people talked a lot about the recall campaign, and many of them got pretty up in arms about it. People who had never known each other before started working together to defeat it - creating phone trees, etc. They won - because of the contacts and the strength of numbers provided by the study circle program, the participants were able to effect a change. Instead of a small minority's making an important community decision, the study circles made the recall vote more of a group decision."

Another outcome reminded people of the reason the Kuna committee began organizing in the first place: tensions between senior citizens and young people. The high school students are putting on a "senior prom" in February at the senior center. Both teenagers and seniors will be dressing up in formal attire and dancing the night away.

"Kuna has been an awesome example of student leadership," says Holly Keller, the new president of the student body at the high school. "It's because we've had amazing adult leaders who have given us the opportunity to develop our skills and truly get involved. By giving students leadership roles, they develop a sense of belonging, ownership and pride in others and in their community. I think having confidence and trust in youth really influences them and inspires them to want to make a difference."

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