FLANDREAU AND DELL RAPIDS, S.D. (KELO) — For both Donavan DeBoer and Rick Weber, superintendents at the Dell Rapids and Flandreau School Districts, respectively, the 1.25% increase in funding for South Dakota school districts means change could be on the way for their communities.
“We may have to increase class sizes in areas,” DeBoer said. “We may have to cut down the number of electives that we offer in the high school. We might have to determine how many teachers do we want in this area versus this area.”
“There’s going to be possible cuts dealing with that,” Weber said. “Obviously, an increase of 1.25 doesn’t give us a lot of extra dollars, and just for next year, it looks like our enrollment’s going to dip a little bit as well. So, that’s kind of a double whammy on that.”
While a 1.25% increase means more money…
“It’s dollars, but it doesn’t keep up with even inflationary rates,” DeBoer said.
These are challenges that educators, parents and students will have to navigate across the state.
“The only source of revenue we have is tax dollars,” DeBoer said.
“It’s going to hurt everybody across the board,” Weber said. “So, every school in the state is going to be looking, right now looking at how to cut wherever they can trim.”
KELOLAND News spoke on the phone Thursday with Eric Knight, superintendent of the West Central School District, who says the 1.25% figure will “provide challenges.” The Sioux Falls School District’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 has more than $3 million cut from it, but current assistant superintendent and future superintendent Jamie Nold says no one will lose their job.
