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Kleopfer announces grand finale Director to leave post at school year’s end
Former students credit ‘Mr. K’ for family atmosphere By JASON TIDD The Iola Register
Yohon Sinclair, a 2016 Iola High School valedictorian and the marching band’s 2015 drum major, said it was not until this week that he fully understood a lesson taught by Matt Kleopfer, his high school band instructor. Kleopfer, who is affectionately called “Mr. K” by his students, announced this week that he will not return next school year. Two years ago, Sinclair sat next to Kleopfer, watching other high school bands perform during a competition at Baker University. “A lot of the really big, really good bands had started to play and he was pointing out directors that he knew personally to me,” Sinclair said. “After he pointed out probably three or four, he asked me if I knew a couple of the things they had in common.” Sinclair did not know, so he asked for the answer. “He told me that every single one of them had been married and divorced at least once, and that all of them were incredibly miserable guys when they weren’t winning band competitions; that they didn’t have a purpose,” Sinclair said. “I asked him why that really mattered, and he told me with how our band program is growing and starting to do a lot better at competitions, that the day he had to choose between winning a competition and loving his family, he would put up his baton and he would no longer teach.” “I kind of took it with a grain of salt until the other day when I read about his plan to resign, and then I realized just how true to his word he had really stuck to that,” Sinclair said. “He’s resigning partially because he can’t meet the demands of being a husband and a father and a teacher. It kind of made me
By JASON TIDD The Iola Register
Matt Kleopfer, the band director for Iola’s high school and middle school since the 2012-2013 school year, has announced his decision to resign. Kleopfer said he is leaving the position because it did not leave enough time to spend with his family. “When you come home and you put your kids to bed and the last thing they say before you shut the lights out is, ‘Are you going to be home tomorrow?’ If that’s their No. 1 concern, are we going to get to see you tomorrow, I don’t like that. That really bugs me, and my kids started asking me that more and more,” Kleopfer said Thursday during a phone conversation from his home. “I just didn’t want them constantly wondering if I was going to be home the next day. I wanted them to worry about things kids are supposed to be worrying about, not that.” Kleopfer also said he does not want his wife, Jenessa, who is pregnant with their fourth child, to have all the responsibilities of caring for their children as well as their livestock. The Kleopfers live in rural Fredonia. His fall schedule left little time to be home. “Marching band gets pretty crazy pretty fast and it doesn’t really let up until the beginning of November,” Kleopfer said. “Then you get about two weeks to kind of reset your sails and then it’s pep band and Christmas concerts.” “This semester I cut a lot of extra commitments out of the schedule, which I hated to do
Matt Kleopfer, left, shown here with Iola Middle School student Holden Barker at a band clinic in June, is stepping down as Iola bands instructor at the end of the school year. REGISTER/ FILE PHOTO
because it’s stuff that made us who we were,” Kleopfer said. THE SEEDS of leaving began to sprout over the summer when he spent more time with his children while still teaching music in Iola two days a week. “I spent a bunch of time with my kids and it was just amazing,” Kleopfer said. “It was kind of a weird feeling, like it almost felt like I got to know them for the first time, like truly know who they were, not just saying ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ like I was all the time.” One day after weed eating at the country club, Kleop-
Matt Kleopfer guides the Iola Middle School band through a recent performance. REGISTER/FILE PHOTO
fer had a conversation with George Levans, a retired football coach and magistrate court judge. “He gave me some wisdom,” Kleopfer said. “He had the unfortunate event that, as a parent, he had to bury one of his own kids. Like, he outlived one of his children, and he started to tear up and said, ‘Man, you can’t ever get that time back.’” Afterward, Kleopfer could not stop thinking about what Levans told him. He saw a similarity between his experience as a father and band director and Levans’ hectic schedule and limited family time as a football coach. “As the summer went on, it stuck with me this whole time and it just put weight on my heart the more I considered it and looked at it that my family has kind of always been second to the job,” Kleopfer said. “Just because of the way the job is set up, I’m sure there are some out there who do and can, but with the obstacles that I had, I tried my hardest to make my family the first priority and do that job the justice it needed.” Kleopfer’s conclusion was a change needed to be made. “I just sat down and thought about it and prayed
Berlin attack suspect killed in shootout
Quote of the day Vol. 119, No. 41
feel really proud to know that he’s still sticking true to his word and not letting being a good teacher ruin the rest of his family life.” The Mustang Regiment won that competition. TECHNICALLY, Jordan Strickler, a 2013 IHS valedictorian and 2012 drum major, had five different band directors during his seven years in middle and high school. Kleopfer came on board for Strickler’s senior year. “Mr. K’s level of expectation was a lot higher than the others, and with that also came an increased awareness on my part of what professional musicians can do and do do out in the real world and the awareness of what other high school programs are able to accomplish,” Strickler said. Sinclair said the focus of former directors Larry Lillard and Robert McGuire was choosing music they knew the band could play because of its lower level of difficulty. That changed when Kleopfer arrived. “Mr. K kind of came in and See STUDENTS | Page A3
Iola native Michael Wilson salutes during an Iola High School marching band performance in the fall of 2013. COURTESY PHOTO
See MR. K | Page A6
MILAN (AP) — The Tunisian man suspected in a deadly attack on a Christmas market in Berlin was killed early today in a shootout with police in Milan during a routine patrol, ending a Europe-wide manhunt. Italian police said Anis Amri traveled from Germany through France and into Italy after the attack, at least some
Yohon Sinclair
of it by train. French officials refused to comment on his passage through France, despite increased surveillance on its trains after both recent French attacks and the Berlin massacre. Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni praised the two young police officers for their courage in taking down Amri during a routine check of ID
papers. But he also called for greater cross-border police cooperation, suggesting dismay that Amri was able to easily move through Europe’s open borders despite being Europe’s No. 1 fugitive. Amri was identified with the help of fingerprints supplied by Germany. “The person killed, without a shadow of a doubt, is Anis
“Zeal will do more than knowledge”
— William Hazlitt, English critic (1778-1830) 75 Cents
Amri, the suspect of the Berlin terrorist attack,” said Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack outside Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in which a truck plowed into a crowd of shopSee SUSPECT | Page A4
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