The Sioux Falls School District is exploring school boundary changes

SIOUX FALLS, SD (Dakota News Now) – The Sioux Falls School District made one last change to its school boundaries when Jefferson Middle School and Ben Reifel Middle School opened in August 2021. But continued growth in the city and students continue to open enrollment. in the district it means that some schools are at capacity and more changes need to be made.

Rapid development on both the east and west sides of the city is putting pressure on the city’s elementary schools, particularly Rosa Parks and Renberg Elementary Schools. These two schools will see the most changes in the proposed boundary reform.

For Rose Parks, students will travel east of Highway 11 and south of 33rd Street and west of Highway 11 and south of 41st Street to Harvey Dunn Elementary School. Students in the bus zone west of Cleveland Ave. to Susan B. Anthony moved primary. Finally, the northernmost area of ​​the Rosa Parks primary boundary area north of Arrowhead Parkway will move to Ann Sullivan.

For Renberg, the southeast corner of the current boundary area moves to Hawthorne Elementary. A full list of proposed changes can be found here Here.

These two schools are currently oversubscribed and will only continue to grow in the coming year. The district’s assistant superintendent, Jamie Nold, said the increase in enrollment is a good sign for the future, but overcapacity schools add to the pain they need to overcome.

“It is a good problem that more children and more students are studying in our schools. We just have to make sure we don’t come into the fall and have nowhere to put them,” Nold said. “We’ve taken rooms that aren’t necessarily classrooms and turned them into classrooms at the same time. So we’re trying to eliminate some of that. We have a plan. It’s just that some of these buildings and apartments are going up faster than we thought.”

Nold said elementary schools have a much harder time dealing with overcapacity than middle or high schools. The district will have to make changes again after it finishes building another elementary school in the west of the district, but the current boundaries won’t work until then.

“You really either have to have space or you don’t and you’re overcrowding the classrooms, and we really don’t want that to happen either. We want it to be set up in such a way that every student has the opportunity to be in the right class and be able to pass and get their education that way. But we are just getting into a situation where there is such an increase. Nold said.

Nold said the changes are not necessary to move students from school to school. But to make sure they have room for everyone, they need to make changes.

“We don’t want families to be relocated. But we also need to make sure to account for the available space. It’s going to be even worse when we get to the fall and we don’t plan for it, and make sure we have that space so every student that shows up in the fall has a place to stay. Nold said.

Three more public hearings will be held before the school board gives its final approval. Nold said they want to hear from as many families, parents and community members as possible to try and find ways to make the transition easier for everyone. He said their first hearing, held on February 7, was constructive in providing community feedback and positive change. Each will be held at Rosa Parks Elementary, and each session will focus on boundary changes for each specific school.

Rosa Parks/BRMS to Anne Sullivan/WMS

– Location: Rosa Parks Elementary School

– Date: February 13, 2022

– Time: 19:00

– Room: Rosa Parks Elementary School Library

Rosa Parks to Harvey Dunn

– Location: Rosa Parks Elementary School

– Date: February 22, 2022

– Time: 17:30

– Room: Rosa Parks Elementary School Library

Rosa Parks / BRMS / WHS to SBA / PHMS / LHS

– Location: Rosa Parks Elementary School

– Date: February 22, 2022

– Time: 18:30

– Room: Rosa Parks Elementary School Library

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