Brandon Valley School District to close Valley Springs Elementary by end of school year

The Brandon Valley School District is planning to close Valley Springs Elementary School by the end of this school year, according to a video message superintendent Jarod Larson shared with families on Wednesday.

While that’s the administration’s plan, the school board can intervene on that decision. Board members will hear the administration’s full plan in Monday’s school board meeting, Larson said, and can vote to close or not close the school in their Oct. 23 meeting.

The last day of school at Valley Springs Elementary School is scheduled for May 23, 2024. Students who attended that school will go to Brandon Elementary School in the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years.

Larson said the plan has always been to close the school by the time a new east-side elementary school opens, as is detailed in the district’s 2040 strategic plan. However, the district found out in recent weeks that the opening of the school has to be delayed to the fall of 2026 because of “utility infrastructure development.”

The city of Brandon’s work on a sanitary sewer trunk line has “incurred some significant increases in terms of project cost,” Larson said, noting it’s four times higher than the city originally invested into the project.

In addition to the delay, the school must close because the district is facing a “budget and enrollment situation” this fiscal year as the school is 130 students short in enrollment in relation to what it projected when it set the budget, Larson explained.

The district had expected 165 more students in the school district this year and set its budget that way, but the enrollment only grew by 35 students, so the district has 130 fewer students at the school than it budgeted for.

This year’s enrollment didn’t meet enrollment projections, Larson said, because projections are an educated guess. He said there are a number of variables that could factor into the enrollment change, including interest rates or how many people moved in or out of the area.

Larson said this means the district is out approximately $926,900 when factoring in the per-student-allocation of $7,130.

Larson said the district had a “planned deficit” of $493,000 in the budget for this school year which helps manage the fund balance. Combining these two figures places the district at a $1,419,900 total deficit for the school year.

To cover this, the district has had to make some reductions in its budget, including $572,000 from the general fund to delay hiring of some positions, let some vacant positions go unfilled and eliminate “two extra paid days” from teacher contracts; and, a $301,000 reduction from the capital outlay fund from the remaining balance of some completed projects and to prioritize and eliminate some small capital projects.

Once the school closes, staff can be moved from the elementary to other parts of the district that are seeing growth, Larson explained.

By fall 2024, the district will open up bids for construction of the new east-side elementary school. Construction will be in progress for the new school until the summer of 2026 before it opens in the fall of 2026.

Larson said there is no plan at this time to tear down Valley Springs Elementary School. The site could become a specialized high school academy within the next 10 years. Plans for such an academy are laid out in the district’s strategic plan, and could include career and technical education options or more courses in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), Larson said.

The district would start considering that academy by the time the high school is at its capacity of 2,000 students, Larson said, noting the current headcount is more than 1,300 students.

“It is important for us to reach out and connect regarding a number of different situations that the Brandon Valley School District is certainly working through and ultimately the impact it will have on Valley Springs Elementary,” Larson said at the start of his video message. “It’s very important to us to communicate with you regarding the circumstances and the situation in a timely and transparent manner.”

If you went to Valley Springs Elementary School, currently attend or work at the school or have a child at the school, we want to hear from you about this change. Please reach our education reporter Morgan Matzen at MMatzen@argusleader.com to share how the school’s pending closure impacts you.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Brandon Valley administration wants to close Valley Springs Elementary