Sioux Falls School District talks about its legislative platform for 2024 Legislature

The Sioux Falls School District wants to see South Dakota’s education funding formula change from 3% or inflation, whichever is less, to 3% or inflation, whichever is greater.

That’s just one of the things the district would like the state and its legislators to focus on this legislative session, which informally begins with Gov. Kristi Noem’s budget address Dec. 5 and her State of the State Address on Jan. 9.

Inflation is more than 3%, so the district is expecting to only get a 3% increase in state aid this year, business manager Todd Vik explained to the school board Monday night.

That’s unless the Legislature passes another historic funding increase to education as they did in 2023 at 7% and in 2022 at 6%, which Vik said has kept districts up close to inflation.

More: Could another change in South Dakota's school funding formula be coming?

Superintendent Jane Stavem said districts don’t want the increases that are necessary to be seen as outliers.

“They need to become more than the norm if we’re going to keep pace, and keep moving in a good direction to keep educating kids well in our state,” Stavem said.

Significant funding increases continue to be needed to raise the overall profile of educator compensation if South Dakota is going to be competitive within the education workforce and the private workforce, the district states in its platform document.

Juvenile justice, behavior support prioritized

Other priorities in the district’s legislative platform for the year include juvenile justice, school safety, support for behavioral and mental health needs, teacher compensation and more.

For juvenile justice, the funding, the mechanism for distributing funding and the effectiveness of statewide diversionary programs need ongoing review and revision, the district states in its legislative platform.

More: Juvenile justice report: More delinquent kids taken to court in South Dakota

The district advocates for increased funding, equitable distribution of the dollars to follow the need, and improvement of existing facilities and consideration for growing new programs to meet the statewide demand for dealing with juveniles involved in significant criminal activity, according to the district’s platform.

On the topic of safety and support, the district notes many districts don’t have the resources necessary to provide the level of intervention needed or appropriate for public schools to assume, resulting in students who go without adequate support and placements.

“As a result, classrooms, schools and staff are faced with significant needs that outpace what is available and appropriate in the school setting, jeopardizing a positive learning environment,” the platform states.

School lunch, childcare also considered

Other areas of consideration include early childhood education and childcare resources, nutrition services support and unpaid meal costs, career and technical education funding and program options, support for teacher certification flexibility that supports workforce needs and local needs, and introducing the ACT as the state assessment for 11th graders.

Early childhood and preschool education is something the district has advocated for year-over-year, Stavem said, and childcare is more prominent recently because of workforce needs.

On meal costs, Stavem spoke about how all meals were free during COVID-19, but said even before that, there was a “growing mindset” about families paying for student lunches.

More: Could SD offer statewide free school lunches? This lawmaker is pushing for it

Generous community members in Sioux Falls and across the U.S. offered to relieve student meal debt for families, which Stavem said is really helpful, “but that also has kind of perpetuated and then it’s part of a change in mindset about what (that looks) like for paying your unpaid meals.”

This year, the Sioux Falls School District has covered the cost of both free and reduced-price meals for families because it can receive reimbursement for those meal costs, Stavem said.

More: Another South Dakota lawmaker has joined the push for free school lunches, this time K-8

Stavem said she was aware of the “talk legislatively” about the state’s role in potentially covering school meals, and said that was a “big area to keep an eye on.”

Rep. Kadyn Wittman (D-Sioux Falls) has an idea to cover all school meals for all K-12 children, regardless of income guidelines, and Rep. Fred Deutsch’s (R-Florence) proposal would cover free school meals for K-8 students who qualify for both free or reduced-price meals.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls School District updates 2024 legislative priorities