HURON — The Huron School Board of Education worked through a full agenda at the first meeting of the year on Monday evening, which included reports regarding the Huron School District’s enrichment opportunities and vision screenings for students. The board also looked at options for the academic calendar plus more business.
School Nurses Rita Baszler, Raleigh Larson and Jessica Van Diepen invited members from the Huron Lions and Lioness, Huron Noon Lions and Huron Eye Openers Lions Clubs to thank them for their work to assist the school in funding for the Spot Vision Screener equipment.
Executive Director of the South Dakota Lions Foundation Jennifer Sigette, club members Leanne Gutormson, Gene Chapman, Graham Smith and Betty Albright were all introduced to the board, and a report was heard on vision screenings offered to students and children across the community.
“About six years ago we got started using the S.D. Lions Club Spot Vision Screener, which is a very effective way to check near and far sight, make sure the eyes are working well together and shows pupil size,” explained Baszler. “There are five things it will detect, and if anything comes back into the camera not acceptable, it will refer for a full eye exam.”
The school district was able to obtain its own Spot Vision Screener through the help of the three clubs plus other fundraising. It costs approximately $8,000 for the camera.
“We are on course to screen 40,000 children across the state this year,” Sigette said. “This program, called Lions Kids Sight, is growing tremendously, and that is really because of partnerships with school districts like you.”
Many day cares, churches and organizations receive screenings through the program.
Gutormson explained, “There are still day cares I would really like to get into because it takes one minute per child. I used to be a school teacher, and I really can tell how great this is for these kids.”

“In order to learn, you have to be able to see what you’re learning,” Baszler added.
Superintendent Terry Nebelsick discussed the academic calendars for the upcoming school year.
“The two calendars were developed to show the committee what the calendar would look like if it started after Labor Day,” Nebelsick said. “The other calendar is what it would look like if we finished the first semester before Christmas.”
The calendar committee, made up of teachers, para-educators, parents and other individuals, requested that the model which differs from the existing calendar be worked on continuously and developed for possible adoption in the future.
“It is my best recommendation to support a calendar that begins after Labor Day, if we then go to another calendar it will be by the vote of the board,” Nebelsick explained.
The calendars will be brought to the board at the following meeting for possible action.
A presentation was seen by the board about the Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs and the K-12 Enrichment Opportunities that the district is developing.
Jolene Konechne and Linda Pietz discussed the Maker Space Lab that has been brought to the Middle School Library, which many students utilize with a variety of items in the fields of Science Technology Engineering Art and Math (STEAM) for students to work on.
During the presentation, a droid robot that students built and programmed through the lab was shown to the board.
“The students use their IPads and they can manipulate which direction the robot goes. The kids have a lot of fun working with that,” Konechne said. “53 percent of our high school students are enrolled in at least one CTE class this fall, the highest class is the sophmores at 73 percent.”
The Vocational building now has two new additions, including a welding station where students can view their work, and a gas engine chassis, which allows students to learn all of the electrical operation of a car.
“We’ve talked about project Lead the Way district wide. That allows students to find their passion and gives them the opportunity to figure out and explore things such as engineering or coding,” explained Konechne.
Pietz added, “We want to re-enforce with our students that all children are gifted and talented in different areas. We want to provide enough opportunities that all students can be challenged and enrich their individual talents.”
The board reviewed and approved various policy changes to maintain health and well-being standards for students, staff and all school personnel, while also extending congratulations to many successes. These can be viewed online at the Huron School District’s web site, along with other business that was addressed at the meeting.