Some Black Hills schools feeling effects of boycott, SDGOP paranoia

After South Dakota's governor signed a bill into law that discriminates against some couples who want to adopt a California-led boycott is queering Denny Daugaard's pitch.

It's taking its toll on some Black Hills schools, too. Hot Springs schools are facing a $422,000 shortfall.

The Hot Springs School District Administration Building was once again tense Monday evening for the school boards business meeting. The board voted unanimously to eliminate a full time Spanish position, move two counselors from full to half time and to move a librarian from full to half time. In addition to the reduction in force, the board also accepted the resignations of three teachers and two other staff members.

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The Custer School District is under pressure to spend some $62,000 for a part-time cop but teachers are getting screwed.

Custer County Sheriff Marty Mechaley said there have been four different school resource officers in the past several years, which makes it hard for the officer to build a rapport with the students and earn their respect. Some on the board said they had an issue with only one resource officer and felt that all three schools in the district should have an officer.

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A Lead-Deadwood school board member believes arming teachers is nuts.

The Belle Fourche School District is pondering a stronger law enforcement industry presence and is expected to spend more money on surveillance.

The school district might have had one of the most emotional school board meetings in months as three teachers were on the agenda to discontinue their service to the Hill City School District. While the context of the the last school board meeting was mostly confusion and unrest about the rest of the decisions, the school board was going to make the meeting on March 13 more about expressing anger about the situation. Howie Euneau, business owner in Hill City, said he heard nothing but negative feedback about what the school district is doing from people.

Read that story here.

More evidence of Daugaard tyranny: a third of qualified teaching grads leave South Dakota while the remainder struggle with certification.

There is a net inbound demographic of white retirees moving to South Dakota where a regressive tax structure pays property taxes with federal Social Security benefits while enriching a medical industry monopoly.

Mike Hanson, superintendent of Hill City school district, said the new funding formula in 2016 was based on lowering taxes and increasing teacher salaries. They are looking at every code in the budget to ensure efficiencies, create exemplary opportunities for students and to be within budget, a budget in which taxpayers will be confident in. The first source of revenue for these school districts is property taxes. Levies have dropped significantly and the school district is receiving less tax revenue than what they had been receiving. The school district saw a loss of $330,000 recently due to a focus on property tax relief that came in 2016. Last year’s general fund budget for the school district was around $4.8 million.

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As teachers flee South Dakota for blue states Sioux Falls is recruiting cheaper brown skinned educators.

K-12 Achievement: D (65.2), Status: D- (62.5), Change: F (57.6), School Finance: D (66.3), Spending: F (48.6). Read it all at Education Week.

So, police unions get the cash while teachers unions get the shaft: how conservative.

How 65 county seats and their bureaucracies are either conservative or sustainable remains a mystery.