The Huron School Board of Education held its regular meeting Tuesday due to the Native American holiday Monday.

The Associated School Board of South Dakota honored the Huron School Board of Education with the bronze ALL award, which is a third recognition program that recognizes the school for its dedicated and ethical service to the students of South Dakota. It recognizes the school board’s participation, and outside activities, board development, and training, and demonstrated leadership at various areas and levels.

The Educator Rising group is a small group of six to 10 students that are interested in going into teaching. Principal Mike Radke will be the supervisor of the group. The group is wanting to create the next generation of teachers and create more opportunities for students in the district to be teachers aides and further themselves.

Superintendent Terry Nebelsick celebrated the successes in the district, thanking Wal-Mart for its generous donation of school supplies to the Buchanan K-1 District. Nebelsick congratulated the teachers, students, parents, and coaches for following all the protocols so the kids could play games. “I congratulate a lot of people that have done everything they can so that the children's youth was not lost in the middle of the pandemic,” said Nebelsick.
Mike Radke, Principal of the Huron High School, presented the good news report. Radke discussed the completion of the building project, with little more to do to finish up.

“We were allowed to move in the Friday before school started,” he said. Radke showed pictures of the new areas in the high school and discussed the front secure entrance where people can come into the lobby. There is a set of doors that lead into the commons for students and a buzzer that will allow individuals to go into the office.

The front of the building is where the new conference area is located. They are currently using extra desks to maintain social distancing. The nurse's office had a dedicated restroom attached, as well as a sink in the outer office, so she can complete different care for kids.

When the community opens up, the community will appreciate the added bathrooms right off of the commons area so they don’t have to walk down the long hallways to find a restroom.

Radke went over the homecoming festivities that were held and the great participation by the student body. “I’d like to say thank you, starting the school year is always a challenge. This year you faced questions you never considered before. Information and recommendations you relied on to make decisions changed daily, sometimes throughout the day,” he said

“I walked behind the student council float which is the last float in the parade,” he said. “I walk at the end to remind myself to never take for granted the opportunity and responsibility my home town has given me to run a high school they can be proud of.”

Kelly Christopherson presented the business manager's report.  

“Were still trying to bring the construction program to a close. We continue to monitor the project, we are still waiting on middle school lockers which haven’t been delivered from the manufacturer, the date keeps getting pushed back,” said Christopherson. “We’re working on getting good locks and keys for all the doors, and we have some rooftop units that weren’t working properly, but we think we got to the bottom of it.”

Terry Nebelsick discussed his Superintendents report, the COVID updates, and school board vacancy replacements.

“Once a week there is a meeting called ‘office hours’ and at least one of our nurses join me and we listen to the Department of Education and the Department of Health come together with information for us on what’s going on at the state level,” said Nebelsick. “The large school group meets on Zoom, at least every other week, and the Huron Area Superintendents, which is all the small schools — public and private — meet on Zoom at least monthly, but are on call to go every week if we needed to. In addition to that, it all goes around to the Operation Task Force and the Operations Tasks Force are the ones that the school board agreed would be the sounding board, the recommendation board, for the Superintendent.”

Nebelsick shared that this has directly moved them to success in keeping the schools open, because they come from the test center, law enforcement, city government, county government, department of health, and they have been instrumental in keeping Huron going.

There is one open seat for a board member that will open at the end of December. If anyone in the public is interested in running for school board or filling a vacancy, they can contact a member of the school board or Superintendent Nebelsick.  

Approved on the agenda was:
• Iverson sponsorship at the Tiger Stadium

• Marching Band fundraiser to be held Oct. 19
• Hire of 14 staff and resignation of two staff
• The updated reopening plan booklet as requested by the Superintendent
• Department of Health Testing program
• Construction change order in the amount of $70,572.72
• Addressed the trust and agency account for “Educator Rising” group

The next Board of Education meeting will be Monday, Oct. 26, on the second floor of the arena in the IPC room. The meeting can be viewed live from a link on the school's website at http://huron.k12.sd.us/watch-school-board-meetings/. In the days following the meeting, the meeting can also be viewed on the local cable TV public access channel 6.