Progress & Industry: School successes in 2019

From bond issues to growing enrollment, the Brandon Valley School District saw a significant progress over the past 12 months. Examples included: 

• The Brandon Valley Board of Education approved $840,000 in new staff hires for the fall of 2019.

• The district added 11 full-time teachers, including three at the elementary level, two at the high school, two at Brandon Valley Intermediate School and four at Brandon Valley Middle School.

• Brandon Valley High School converted an empty lot into approximately 100 parking spaces to ease congestion at the landlocked school and adopted a new parking system to encourage carpooling.

• You might say the Brandon Valley School District is good at guessing enrollment. Four days into the 2019-20 school year, the district was up 183 students, compared to its projected increase of 175 and a districtwide total of approximately 4,435 students. 

• The Brandon Valley School District was once again named the No. 1 school district in South Dakota by niche.com.

• Despite Brandon Valley’s summer lunch program being trimmed by five days compared to 2018, more meals were plated throughout the 38-day program in 2019. In fact, the program realized an 11 percent increase, which was one of the many impressive numbers BV child nutrition director Gay Anderson shared with the board of education on Aug. 12.

• Brandon Valley students perform well above the state average in the classroom, according to the District Report Card released by the South Dakota Department of Education in September.

Across the district, Brandon Valley students scored 20 percentage points above the state average in math, 18 points above in English and 17 points above in science, ranking BVSD as a top AA district for the 7th consecutive year.

• The Brandon Valley School District explored telemedicine by piloting Avera’s eCare program at Valley Springs Elementary. “Telemedicine” is a two-way video conference between a student, a BV staff member and an Avera RN. The goal is simple, said Supt. Dr. Jarod Larson – to improve students’ access to a nurse and care.

• Brandon Valley High School held its first career fair.

• The school district implemented a 5 percent salary increase across-the-board for all employees.

• The school board reinstated president Renee Ullom for another term and welcomed Gregg Talcott as a new member. 

• Brandon Valley Middle School wrapped up its first year of 1-to-1 technology for students.