Sioux Falls School District - Educate and prepare each student to succeed in a changing world

Last week, SD schools celebrated School Board Appreciation Week. Who better to express our thanks & appreciation than the students who directly benefit from Board members' important work?! https://youtu.be/rrWg9ufQa2g

Want to have fun while working this summer? Join our Summer Kids Inc. team! WHAT? Swimming, field trips, and lots of time outside! WHEN? June 6, 2022 - August 5, 2022. No nights/weekends! WHERE? John Harris Elementary, Oscar Howe Elementary, R.F. Pettigrew Elementary, and Robert Frost Elementary. HOW TO APPLY? Submit your application here: https://sf.tedk12.com/hire/index.aspx?jcat=Summer%20Session%20-%20Kids%20Inc

The Sioux Falls School Board Election scheduled to be held in conjunction with the City of Sioux Falls on April 12, 2022 will be canceled. Two seats were up for election this spring, including current Board Members, Carly Reiter and Nan Baker. Friday, February 25 was the cut off date for interested individuals to turn in their candidate package with 20 signatures from registered voters residing in Sioux Falls School District boundaries. Both Baker and Reiter filed petitions to run for re-election, securing enough signatures to get on the ballot. No other petitions were turned in to the Office of the Business Manager or sent via mail postmarked on or before 5 pm on February 25. There will be a Board Agenda item to cancel the election at the next School Board Meeting on March 14, 2022. Baker and Reiter will reclaim their seats and take their oaths as normal at the first meeting in July. The City Election will run as normal.

Superintendent Jane Stavem hosted nearly 50 future educators Tuesday for "Bagels with the Boss." Student teachers currently working in SFSD classrooms joined us to learning about job opportunities, hear about the support offered by the District's Instructional Coaches, and connect with leadership. We look forward to adding many of these new teachers to our team in the Fall!

The Sioux Falls School District is excited to partner with Siouxland Libraries for a community-wide reading initiative. Throughout the month of March, students, staff, parents, and community members are being encouraged to track how many books they read. View the Count here! https://www.sf.k12.sd.us/page/everybody-reads The goal is to create a community of readers ages 0 –100!

Native American Connections program renamed to Očéti Šakówiŋ Owáuŋspe (OSO)! The Native American Connections program, often referred to as ‘NAC’ is a program in the Sioux Falls School District that connects Native students with the culture, traditions, and heritage of the Oceti Sakowin. To center Indigenous language and culture in its programming, Native American Connections has collaboratively determined to rename its programs to Očéti Šakówiŋ Owáuŋspe or OSO. The program will continue to have OSO facilitators in all elementary buildings and offer OSO classes to Indigenous middle and high school students. In addition, OSO has renamed its Lakota language classes at the high school level which will now be titled Languages of the Oceti Sakowin. Our Languages of the Oceti Sakowin and Indigenous Studies courses are available to all high school students in the Sioux Falls School District. See more here: https://youtu.be/HdDc-JLLRCE

It's the college and career fair at the CTE Academy today! Students, universities, military reps, local businesses and industry come together to plan for the future!

This week on the District News Minute: A new community-wide reading initiative gets underway, the SFSD's brand new website is up and running, & summer learning opportunities are available for a variety of students. https://youtu.be/5XcprAdz1_g

Project Search 2022! While it may not be a brand-new program, it is one that is having a huge impact on many Sioux Falls School District students! Project Search is an innovative, business led transition program for special education students ages 18-21 who have completed all high school requirements. The program is a partnership between the Sioux Falls School District, Dow Rummel Village, Department of Human Services, Transition Services Liaison Project, and Department of Labor and regulation. With the help of a classroom environment and Sioux Falls School District staff, students in the program learn and develop their employability skills. Students then apply those skills while participating in targeted internships at Dow Rummel, 5 days a week. The ultimate goal of Project Search is to find competitive employment for each intern upon completion of the program. The program’s strong partnerships are helping to develop the workforce of tomorrow, while gaining valuable interns and future employees along the way. To see more about Project Search, visit our YouTube page: https://youtu.be/5NsEybdUU94

1st grade is a critical year for learning to read. The successful SIPPS instructional model the SFSD has adopted is only as good as the teachers implementing it. Julie Tverberg is an expert at teaching kids how to read, but her heart is why her coworkers want her recognized. https://youtu.be/EuyGL663ZzU

John Harris Elementary has been a school for 30 years this year. Since the school’s opening, there has been a contest amongst fifth graders to create a new flag that represents the motto for learning for the school year. Students draw and submit their artwork to be judged by the JHE staff and PTO leadership who determine the winner. This year’s theme was, “Everything you don’t know is something you can learn.” Over 40 fifth graders submitted their artwork to the competition this year and there were four finalists. The finalists included Henry Combs, Sullivan Martin, Finley Salon, and Jake Van Rooyen. The winner of the flag was Sullivan Martin. His winning flag will be hung amongst the other 29 flags and be part of JHE history! Congrats, Sullivan!

Thank you, School Bus Drivers! February 22nd is National School Bus Driver Appreciation Day! Our School Bus drivers have been through a lot this past year. From picking up extra routes due to driver shortages to having to pivot on a dime almost daily. We cannot emphasize their importance enough. Please help us say thank you to our bus drivers not just today, but every day!

Jefferson Students Make History Jefferson High School recently held its very first Academic Letter Awards Luncheon honoring 291 students. These students achieved a GPA of 3.5 or higher for the 1st and 2nd Semesters of the 2020-21 school year. By the numbers: 133 Sophomores honored out of a class of 408 - 32%. 126 Juniors honored out of a class of 389 - 32%. 32 Seniors honored out of a class of 139 -23%. Congratulations to the first recipients of the Jefferson High School Academic Letter!

No School February 21-22! Don’t forget, President’s Day Break is Monday, February 21st through Tuesday, February 22nd. There will be NO school these days. See you on Wednesday, February 23rd!

Thank you for visiting the new SFSD website! We look forward to using this tool to better serve our stakeholders. Please use the robust search feature to find information. If you’re having trouble, you can always contact us through Let’s Talk https://www.k12insight.com/Lets-Talk/embed.aspx?k=WN6R1DLT. This is a work in progress so we hope you will check back often to see what’s new!

https://youtu.be/9XWl9BYUw2o You likely already knew her name. What you might not know is that she's currently taking 4 Advanced Placement classes, she has a perfect 4.0 GPA, she serves on Student Council, is a part of Black Student Union, helps with LINK crew, and volunteers her time to teach elementary students about leadership and character. She's been recruited by colleges since the 8th grade, but she still trains every day like her spot depends on it. Our loss after graduation is a gain for the Longhorns, but she leaves an incredibly legacy behind.

The Sioux Falls School District benefits from hundreds of partnerships. These partnerships range from internship opportunities, job shadows, field trips to local businesses, mentorships, and so much more. All of which results in life-changing work that impacts the trajectory of our students' lives. We recently invited our local business and community leaders to a partnership breakfast at our CTE Academy as a way to say thank you for everything they do for students and staff throughout each school year. We are fortunate to have such a supportive and close-knit community that supports our public schools in such a unique way. https://youtu.be/71hHSTJo2as

Huge shoutout to our partners at HyVee for helping us “Wipe Out” germs in our classrooms with a donation of cleaning wipes. HyVee is supportive of their community and we are grateful recipients of their goodwill!