FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield High School Auditorium was officially renamed the Mitcheltree, Slechta, Edgeton Performing Arts Auditorium during a dedication ceremony Tuesday night, May 7.

The ceremony was sandwiched between the performances of the FHS band and choir for their spring concert, and included the three honorees taking the stage to accept the recognition. A plaque was unveiled in the auditorium’s lobby depicting Linda Mitcheltree, Scott Slechta and Jim Edgeton, their years of teaching at the high school, and their accolades.

The plaque includes the line, “These teachers used their passion for the performing arts to instill a love of music and theatre in their students.”

The three teachers said they liked that this was a shared honor, especially since the three of them had collaborated on musicals performed on that very auditorium stage.

“I said in my speech and I’ve said all along, I’m glad I’m with those two,” Edgeton said about Slechta and Mitcheltree. “That’s the best part for me.”

Mitcheltree directed the choir at FHS from 1983 to 2009; Slechta taught English and led the drama department from 1984 to 2017, and Edgeton directed the band from 1992 to 2021. Slechta said that, even though he had his own drama productions while Mitcheltree and Edgeton had their musical concerts, the three always supported each other’s endeavors.

“And then when we did musicals, we had to coordinate orchestra with choir practice, with drama practice and stage-building,” Slechta said.

“Even if it was a play or a concert, the rest of us were always volunteering,” Mitcheltree said.

Edgeton noted that volunteering could include being in charge of lights or sound, or working backstage.

Slechta said, “We respected and admired each other for the individual contributions we could bring to it.”

During Tuesday night’s ceremony, Fairfield Activities Director Jeff Courtright thanked Kent Whitney of Whitney Monument Works for making the plaque, and thanked Nate Weaton for the sign being built that will be hung outside the auditorium reflecting the new name.

The idea to rename the FHS Auditorium after Mitcheltree, Slechta and Edgeton came from former FHS Principal Ralph Messerli, who was responsible for hiring all three of them. Messerli asked Chuck Drobny for help in soliciting letters from parents and former students who wrote about the impact those three teachers had on their lives. Messerli and Drobny presented these letters to the school board in January. The board agreed the recognition was richly deserved, and voted to rename the auditorium.

LINDA MITCHELTREE

Messerli introduced Mitcheltree to the stage and listed her accolades, such as being a lifetime member of the Iowa Choir Directors Association, and how she started in 1985 taking the choir on trips to cities such as Chicago, Toronto, San Antonio, Washington, D.C., and three times to New York City. Later this week on Friday, May 10, Mitcheltree will be inducted into the Van Buren County Community School District’s Fine Arts Hall of Fame.

Messerli said that Mitcheltree must have been tired by her retirement in 2009, because he couldn’t believe she had time for all the things she did.

Mitcheltree said it was a privilege to teach at FHS, a school with a history of excellence in music, drama and athletics. She spoke about the changes she saw and helped to usher in, such as awarding academic credit for band and choir. She said the musicals that she collaborated on with Slechta and Edgeton are something she’ll always treasure.

SCOTT SLECHTA

Former FHS Principal Tom Voorhees introduced Slechta, who said he assumed that Slechta must have slept backstage because he would work on productions until 1 a.m. but somehow managed to be at the school by 4:30 a.m. the next morning. Voorhees said that was a sign of Slechta’s dedication.

Voorhees spoke about how Slechta became a Nationally Board Certified Teacher in 2008, and in 2016 received the prestigious honor of being named Iowa Teacher of the Year. After stepping down from FHS in 2017, Slechta has continued teaching as an adjunct at Simpson College and DMACC, and in 2022 he obtained his doctorate from Walden University. He was inducted into the Iowa Thespian Hall of Fame.

Slechta said he was proud of all the students he taught and led in drama productions, both on stage and backstage. He said the renaming honor, though unexpected, was greatly appreciated.

Slechta remarked that there have been a handful of three-person acts in Hollywood like the Marx Brothers and The Three Stooges, but never a three-person act on Broadway.

“Now there’s a three-person team on Broadway … 605 East Broadway,” Slechta joked, referring to the high school’s address.

JIM EDGETON

Edgeton was introduced by his two sons Jon Edgeton and Jim Edgeton III. They spoke about how, after their dad retired from 29 years of leading the band at FHS, he was pulled back into teaching when he became interim band director earlier this school year in Van Buren.

“One more month filling in at Van Buren, and then it’s back to free babysitting,” Jim Edgeton III joked.

The two sons spoke about the fun they had following their dad around on band trips, or making funny faces to distract his students in the band room. But they also got to see his serious side, and how dozens of students came to him for life advice. Jon remarked that he became a vocal music teacher because of the influence of his dad and his choir teacher, Mrs. Mitcheltree.

During his speech, Edgeton thanked Messerli and Drobny for organizing the letter-writing campaign, and said the significance of the recognition didn’t really hit him until he saw the plaque in the lobby.

“Wow, that’s something permanent,” he said. “It’s very special to know my name will be up there with these other two.”

REFLECTIONS

After the concert, friends and family gathered in the FHS Commons for a reception with cake. FHS English teacher Fred Hucke will retire at the end of this school year after having taught in the district for 31 years, most of those overlapping with the three honorees. Hucke said that Jim and LeAnne Edgeton were his first friends in the district, since they had just moved back to Fairfield one year before the Huckes.

“Our air conditioner broke down, and they let us sleep at their house,” Hucke said. “And Jim was also excited because I’m a trumpet player, so I got to solo with the band.”

Hucke taught English alongside Slechta for 20 years.

“He’s great, but nobody wants to measure themselves by him because he’s Mr. Energy,” Hucke said.

Hucke said Mitcheltree is a “sweet and wonderful person.”

“You think of that saying, ‘They don’t care what you know until they know that you care,’ and they always knew that she cared,” Hucke said.