The halls of the Stapleton School echoed with acoustic melodies as the school hosted a bluegrass music assembly in collaboration with the South Alabama Bluegrass Music Association on Dec. 1.
Jim Perry, principal, said he was inspired to incorporate bluegrass music into the classroom, taking inspiration from the annual Stapleton Bluegrass Music Festival that takes place each October and serves as the school's primary fundraiser.

"When I took over the school, I had heard of the festival and helped to revive it six years ago. I wanted our students to understand bluegrass. Young people don't hear it much in our area," Perry said. "The community event is so important to our school, and the kids usually help fundraise for the festival."

Perry said that while the festival has a long history, this is the first year the school has been able to organize an assembly with professional bluegrass musicians.

"The assembly was funded by an educational grant from the International Bluegrass Music Association Foundation, and the grant paid for a professional band to take part," Perry said. "All K-6 students were invited, and they were really intrigued by it. The musicians talked about the history of bluegrass, instruments and played a couple songs the kids would know, like 'You Are My Sunshine.'"

Perry said that while it won't be an annual event, he hopes to replicate something similar every few years to keep the students engaged with the musical genre.

Perry also said that supporting the fine arts is important to him, especially with such a small student body. Currently, the school serves Pre-K through sixth grade and rounds out at just over 200 total students.

"The kids knew to sing along and were excited," Perry said. "Being a smaller, rural school, the more we can expose the kids to fine arts the better and there is so much for them to gain," Perry said.

History of the Stapleton Bluegrass Festival
The festival was a staple of the fall calendar in the early 1980s after the first bluegrass gathering was held rather informally to raise money for a new town fire station.

That little gathering led to a community tradition for 20 years, and after a brief hiatus the festival was revived by the staff, parents and students at Stapleton School to raise money for the school.

Over the years the funds raised by the festival have made improvements at Stapleton School such as an electronic sign, a flagpole, picnic tables, basketball goals, campus-wide classroom technology upgrades and more.