A South Dakota school district facing declining enrollment looks to its future. Doing so has caused tension and pain for many in the community.
The division was apparent at the latest Oldham-Ramona-Rutland School District meeting. The district faces a stark choice — build and pay for a new school, or dissolve entirely.
Monday night's meeting included "Item E" — discussion and action to consider the censure of board memeber Brooke Albertson.
“It was kind of like a public shaming for something no one had talked to me about, asking me why I’ve done the things I’ve done, said the things I’ve said,” Albertson said.
Albertson said it was frustrating to find out the board was censuring her. She says she was blindsided by the censure and embarrassed to have it in front of the entire district.
This all stems from a petition that came about from frustration over the future of the district – particularly from those in the Rutland area. It sought to dissolve the district, rather than continue the effort to come up with money for a new school.
When Albertson was asked to sign the petition, she said she had to think.
“I want nothing but the best for every single kid here," Albertson said. "We have amazing kids here and I’ve been trying to do what’s the best thing to do here, to keep them here so they have the best education and opportunities in life. The petition went around to dissolve and I had to really think about it.”
And she decided to sign it.
Board President Lance Hageman said that justified the decision to censure.
“That goes against board ethics, everything the board stands for," Hageman said. "The board is 100% for the school and the education and everything. So that goes against everything and what she was elected for.”
But Albertson said it’s deeper than a decision to dissolve the district and actually doesn’t indicate which way she leans at all. She says the decision goes back to 2022 when Rutland was considering whether to join the Oldham-Ramona district. The consolidation was designed to save both districts money amid low enrollment. The consolidation vote passed in both districts by a few percentage points.
Albertson said the decision to consolidate was not easy.
“Before we consolidated, the Rutland board which I was a part of, the board chose not to consolidate. Then next month, we brought it back, they brought it back again to consolidate. And we did not want to consolidate," Albertson said. "We were told this is bigger than us. It belongs in the hands of the voters. And so we put in the hands of the voters, and my superintendent that said that at the time, that always kind of stuck with me. Like, there are some things that are bigger than the five of us. There’s decisions that we might not like that are bigger than us. We can’t make those. We have to put it in the hands of the district.”
When the censure was announced and passed, Albertson left the gym. Many from the Rutland area joined her, exemplifying the contention between Ramona and Rutland residents.
Board President Hageman said the divide between Ramona and Rutland has grown over the last two years as the district weighed what to do.
People from the Oldham, Ramona and Rutland areas voted three times on bonds to build a school along Highway 81 at a spot central to the entire district. Each time, the votes reached a majority but failed to receive the necessary 60% supermajority.
After those three votes, the district was approved for $20 million in capital outlay certificates to demolish and rebuild it in the current condemned Romana school building.
The board decided to put out a fourth bond vote to try one more time for the central location. It failed again.
Hageman said one of the sad parts is the people of Ramona wanted to have the most centralized location.
“Every bond vote in the Ramona locations, I think the first three were 75-80% of those people voted to put it on Highway 81. The last bond vote, after we got the capital outlay certificates, 65% of the people in Ramona voted to put it on 81 yet," Hageman said. "So the majority of the people that voted here in this facility, in this area, still didn’t want it in town. They still wanted it out on 81.”
The board has shifted focus toward the demolition and rebuilding of a school at the existing site in Ramona. Supporters say it's the only viable solution after the bond votes failed.
The problem for the people of Rutland is the distance, with some living up to an hour away from Ramona. Some would rather see the district dissolved so they could go to nearby schools like Brookings or Sioux Valley.
Sarah Wilson is a mother of a freshman from Rutland. She said dissolving is more beneficial to students who live far away from Ramona. But she feels this isn't being recognized by the board.
“It’s not that our voices aren’t being heard, it’s almost like they’re being muffled with mistruths and being characterized as not unifying," Wilson said.
Hageman said he thinks people aren’t seeing the full picture or scope of the issue.
“It’s sad that some of these people had to get this petition to dissolve the district because they’re not paying attention to the implications that that’s going to have on employment, also the aspect of these kids being uprooted from their homeschool to another school,” Hageman said.
Hageman and others say dissolving the district would be bad for students. Students like Brody Westall.
Brody and his friend Lucas Wall gathered 60 high school signatures in a petition to keep the district in an effort countering the petition to dissolve the district. He said it goes to show just how much division the issue has caused.
"You kind of get a feeling who’s for the school, who’s against the district. And you see that their kids have signed the petition just kind of showing the differences in opinion that exist even between families — and how their kids would want it but they don’t. But their kids would lose a lot of their social life just having to go to a new school for one or two years instead of staying here and finishing out school," Brody said.
As board member Brooke Albertson left the gymnasium, she said she heard people clapping, celebrating her leaving.
“It does nothing but divide this district more and more. And we are setting the example that it’s okay to treat people like this in our district. And the divide is so huge and it gets just bigger every month by us, doing things like this and not acting like adults and talking things through," Albertson said. "People, it’s not right. We are setting the example for people to do this to others. And that’s what’s happening. The districts are divided. People are attacking people on Facebook and kids. And it’s not right.”
As more information and additional discussion is expected in next month’s meeting, tensions remain high. Both Hageman and Albertson can at least agree that it’s sad to see what the issue has done to the community.
