News

Area city board positions will be up for election this spring.

“The shortage of substitute teachers, both in quantity and quality, across the country has never been more severe,” wrote Geoffrey Smith, director of the Substitute Teacher Training Institute, in a 2022 article for the National School Superintendents Association website. Though Smith penned those words last year, the issue remains and is true for South Dakota as well: There are not enough substitute teachers to go around. Yet, area principals say that it can be a great job for many reasons and invite local people to learn more about the position.

Concern over the future of the teaching profession in South Dakota has led to more aggressive efforts by education officials to train and inspire a new generation of classroom leaders, with particular emphasis on elementary school classrooms.

At the 81st annual meeting of the South Dakota Rural ElectricAssociation(SDREA) held in Pierre this past weekend, a local man was recognized for his leadership in the industry. Kermit Pearson of Lake City was presented with SDREA’s 2023 Legacy of Leadership Award. This award highlights outstanding cooperative leaders who lend their talent, time, expertise, and passion toward achieving success for their cooperatives and their service areas.

If you stop by any senior citizen center, you can probably guess what you would find inside. Folks in their golden years enjoying coffee, cookies and maybe some feisty card-playing. At the Fun After Fifty center in Britton, you’ll find all of the above. However, on select days of the week, you’ll also see seniors counting nuts and bolts or slipping instruction pamphlets into plastic sleeves. Perhaps a strange sight, but one that has been a regular occurrence at Fun After Fifty for decades.

Judges from NASA and other experts have selected a proposal from a group of South Dakota State University engineering students to compete with 14 other teams in the next stage of the $3.5 million Break the Ice Lunar Challenge.

The confirmed finding last summer of zebra mussels in Pactola Reservoir – 15 miles west of Rapid City in the Black Hills National Forest – has sparked greater scrutiny of South Dakota’s efforts to protect bodies of water from aquatic invasive species, which spread exponentially and can negatively impact ecosystems, water intakes, fisheries and beaches.

At the Langford Area School Board meeting on Monday night, one of the agenda items was to approve administrative contracts for the 2023-24 school year. The board approved Mary Hosford as K-12 principal as well as business manager Ginger Olson. They did not, however, approve a contract with current superintendent Ryan Bruns. Rather, the board moved to advertise the superintendent position.

Jr. State Queen Has Local Connection

In their first meeting of the new year, the Marshall County Commission handled the yearly organizational tasks. This included electing a new chairman for the first time in over a decade. Matt Schuller will take over the leadership duties from Doug Medhaug who has served in the position for 13 years. Kevin Jones will be vice chairman.

It was bumpy road when it came to 2022’s precipitation totals. Yet, in the end, this year’s moisture total looks pretty similar to 2021. Last year, local reporters measured 20.31 inches of precip. And despite this year’s seemingly extreme swings, we came in at 19.91 inches in 2022. This total put the area on par with the 100 year average of 20.04 inches of moisture.