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Dell Rapids Elementary Students “Pie” Staff Members

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The Dell Rapids school district held their annual holiday donation drive for local food pantries December 6th through December 10th.  As part of the drive, the Dell Rapids Elementary School had a goal of collecting at least 1,000 items.  The school not only met their goal, but far exceeded it with 1,349 items collected!

To celebrate reaching the goal, a student from each of the elementary classrooms was randomly selected to “pie” a staff member during a celebration on Tuesday, December 14th.  The most important part of the celebration was recognizing the generosity shown by all the students and their families.

The district as a whole collected over 1,750 items for local food pantries during the donation drive.

Vaccine Clinic to be Held at Dell Rapids School

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Image from CDC website

Avera Medical Clinic of Dell Rapids will be hosting a COVID-19 Immunization clinic at Dell Rapids School.  The first dose for interested students and staff will be on Tuesday, September 14th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.  The second dose will be held on Tuesday, October 5th.  The clinic will only be available for staff and students 12 years of age and older, but parents can accompany their children during the shot if they wish.  A permission form is needed before administration of the vaccine, which can be found by clicking here. 

Dell Rapids Public School hosted a Covid-19 Vaccine Informational Town Hall on Wednesday, September 8th with Dr. Mike Elliott, MBA from Avera McKennan Health.  The town hall was streamed live and recorded by Big Sioux Media.  The entire town hall can be viewed in the archive video below. 

Dell Rapids School Shares Draft of Return to Safe Learning Plan

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The Dell Rapids School Board will hold a discussion on the “Return to Safe Learning” Plan during their next regular meeting on Monday, August 9th.  In the meantime, the draft version of the plan has been released to parents and the public prior to the meeting in hopes of clarifying any questions.

The plan for the 2021-2022 school year is much different than the plan from last school year.  One of the big differences is face masks will be recommended, but not required.  Dell Rapids Superintendent Dr. Summer Schultz sat down with Big Sioux Media and discussed some of the changes to this year’s plan. 

“We learned that the masks when worn properly, and specific masks, are very effective in mitigating the spread of Covid-19.  That coupled with the availability of a vaccine right now, we really feel that we can put the decision for both of those things into the parent’s hands and into our staff member’s hands,” she said.  “We didn’t have the luxury of knowing those things last year and there was no availability of a vaccine should someone want it.  We just really think those social and emotional needs of kids wearing that mask all day is tough.”  She also said, “I think we’re in a different landscape right now in our community and our state, so we’re going to allow parents to decide the best course of action for their kids going into this school year.”

Another change with this year’s plan is that extracurricular activities will continue with safeguards in place, but activity attendance will be at full capacity instead to start the school year instead of limited attendance.  However, Dr. Schultz said that the school does follow state guidelines by the South Dakota High School Activities Association, which means attendance changes could happen if directed by state guidelines.

School lunches and breakfasts will be free to all students for the school year once again.  A change to the lunches for this year will be bringing back more options to the the lunchroom like the salad bar.

The full interview with Dr. Schultz can be found in the embedded video.

Teachers of the Year Awarded for 2020-2021

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Both Dell Rapids St Mary and Dell Rapids schools had a “Teacher of the Year” awarded recently.  The award is presented by First National Bank.

The Dell Rapids St Mary “Teacher of the Year” was announced during the graduation ceremonies on Friday, May 14th.  The 2020-2021 St Mary “Teacher of the Year” was Peggy Maxwell.

The Dell Rapids “Teacher of the Year” was announced on Monday, May 24th.  The 2020-2021 Dell Rapids “Teacher of the Year” was Robert Michalscheck.

St Mary and Dell Rapids Students Show Acting Skills

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Students from Dell Rapids St Mary and Dell Rapids schools showed their acting skills with public performances of plays.

Photo used with permission from St Mary Facebook page

Dell Rapids St Mary performed the comedic plays, Check Please and Check Please: Take 2, as two acts on Saturday, April 24th and Sunday, April 25th.  It was about two people that go on a string of dates, in hopes of finding a girl/boyfriend, but they find out that dating is a lot harder than they anticipated. Every date the main characters go on have some crazy quirk. By the end of the first act, the two main characters go on date (later it’s implied that they do become a couple). Then, at the beginning of the second act we find out that they have broken up, and then they are back to dating. By the end of the play, they run into each other again and decide to at least hang out as friends.

Play director Jennifer Riegel said, “It was so much fun working with the students! As a teacher in the classroom, you see them in one light, so it was so fun to see them a new light—and literally take on new personas!”.

Seventh graders through seniors at Dell Rapids school performed the musical The Little Mermaid.  They put on four shows over the course of three days on Friday, April 23rd through Sunday, April 25th.  Sharon Mitchell and Robert Michalscheck directed the musical.

“So many people put hours of work into a successful production. It was great to see 60 plus students from grades 7-12 come together for this show. I appreciated (and I know they did) the large support they got from their community shown by the record numbers of audience members in attendance. A great time was had by all!” said Mitchell.

Both plays received nothing but great reviews from the public!

Dell Rapids Public Alters Winter Break Schedule

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The Dell Rapids Public School District recently announced changes to the winter break schedule.  During the regular Dell Rapids School Board meeting on Monday, November 9th, the board approved changes to start the winter break after school ends for the day on Friday, December 18th.  Students would then come back to school on Monday, January 4th.

Dell Rapids Superintendent Dr. Summer Schultz said, “Although student contact time is always a priority, this change provides staff and students an additional four days out of school to isolate or self-monitor symptoms before the Christmas holiday.   The additional time will also help our custodial crew as they continue to work tirelessly to clean and disinfect the facilities.”

The original break was scheduled to start with a 1:00 p.m. early release on Tuesday, December 22nd and last until Monday, January 4th.

Dell Rapids School District Accepted into Free Meal Program

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The Dell Rapids School District has been accepted into a program by the United States Department of Agriculture that allows all enrolled K-12 students to receive meals at no cost to them.  The USDA Summer Seamless Program was extended as a result of the CARES Act, which supports families during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Both breakfast and lunch meals will be provided free, with no income guidelines, to all K-12 Dell Rapids Public School students.  This program is retroactively in effect from October 1st, 2020, and will be in effect through the end of the 2020-2021 school year.

Charges for meals purchased since the beginning of October will be credited back to student accounts for future use.  Note that only breakfast and lunch meals are free.  Any second milk, a second meal, extra entrées, a la carte items, and elementary milk for breaks will not be free.

Parents or guardians are encouraged to review their elections in MySchoolBucks and adjust or stop automatic deposits into student accounts as needed

School and Activities Begin for 2020-2021 in Dell Rapids

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After five months since students were last in a classroom, some semblance of normalcy is returning to the area this week.  School activities have begun and classes will begin this week.

Dell Rapids St Mary will be back in the classroom starting on Thursday, August 20th.  They did not alter their school start date this year.  Teachers are having in-service on Tuesday, August 18th and Wednesday, August 19th.  An open house is also being held on Tuesday, August 18th.  A copy of their “Return to Learn” plan can be found by clicking here.

Dell Rapids public school pushed their start date back a couple of days to Monday, August 31st.  Dell Rapids will have scheduled open house times on Thursday, August 27th and Friday, August 28th.  A copy of their “Return to Learn” plan can be found by clicking this link.

Activities have started for both schools.  Sports teams are now in pre-season practice time or have already had contests.  The Garretson/Dell Rapids girls soccer team has already played two matches (Vermillion and Groton) and are currently 0-1-1.  The Dell Rapids boys golf team have three tournaments in consecutive days on August 17th (West Central), 18th (Madison) , and 19th (Dakota Valley).

The start of this school year has not been without a hiccup.  Dell Rapids St Mary announced on Monday, August 17th their football game scheduled for Friday, August 21st at Estelline was cancelled by Estelline/Hendricks due to positive Covid tests.  Athletic Director Casey Michel is currently looking for a replacement game for Friday.  If they are able to find a game, Big Sioux Media will share those details.

Dell Rapids Public Releases “Return to Learn” Plan

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The Dell Rapids School Board held a special meeting on Monday, July 27th, to hear the “Return to Learn” plan for Dell Rapids School.  Superintendent Dr. Summer Schultz along with the three school principals, Drew Bunkers, Fran Ruesink, and Julie Wynja, all spoke about different aspects of the “Return to Learn” plan. 

The biggest take away from the discussions was that while the document may now be approved, that doesn’t mean it won’t change.  Things could change within the document as more information becomes available about the Covid virus, just as things have continually changed over the last four months.

Big Sioux Media recorded the meeting.  The start of the “Return to Learn” plan starts at the 9:25 mark of the video and goes until the 2:10:40 mark of the embedded video at the bottom of this story.

The “Return to Learn” document can be found by clicking this link.  The Dell Rapids School has also set up a Frequently Asked Questions page related to “Return to Learn”.  That page can be found by clicking here.

Dell Rapids School District Making Plans for In-Person Start to 2020-2021

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The Dell Rapids School District is making plans to start the 2020-2021 school year in person.  The administration has been working on the “Return to Learn” document, and Dell Rapids Superintendent Dr. Summer Schultz said that document is almost complete.

“We have established four tiers knowing that with a virus such as Covid, that this is a fluid situation.  We don’t know where we’ll be from one time to another.  And so we are going in on what we call level two.  We plan for on-site learning.  We expect our kids to be in school.  Now we also know that some students are considered medically fragile, and that’s just not the right environment for them.  We also know that some parents are going to choose to educate their children at home in what we’ll call ‘parallel instruction’, and that’s different than what we went into last spring,” said Dr. Schultz.

Under the level two, when kids are on site, if a parent decides to keep their child at home for “parallel learning”, Dr. Schultz said the parents will be taking on more of the ownership of the distance instruction.  She mentioned that the school is putting in devices, called Swivels, to help connect the home learners with what’s happening in the classroom.

The main areas still being determined are decisions on masks, transportation, and activities. 

“Masks are one of those areas from one school to the next can differ,” Dr. Schultz mentioned. “Masks are something that people have very strong opinions on, so we don’t want masks to be a deterant for someone to attend school or not to attend school,  But we also want to make sure we are providing the safest environment for our staff and for our students.  We are still trying to decide what that looks like when it comes to masks.”

Transportation and activities are the other two big areas that were still trying to be determined.  Dr. Schultz mentioned that keeping kids together in the same age/class group as much as possible throughout the day.  By doing that, the administration team is still trying to determine details of how students may be transported on buses before and after school, details of how before and after school Haven might work, and how students may travel to their different activities or sporting events.

The finalized “Return to Learn” document will be presented to the Dell Rapids Board of Education on Monday, July 27th.  Big Sioux Media will stream that meeting.

The school board has already made one change to the school year.  The first day of school has now been moved to Monday, August 31st with the 27th and 28th being orientation/open house activities for students and parents.

 

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