One thing that was very apparent during the State of the Schools luncheon Thursday is the variety of options available in Huron, the diversity of the students and the overwhelming support of the community.

For a small city, Huron has a wide array of education venues for all ages. Representatives from each school spoke to the assembly at the Crossroads Hotel & Convention Center. More than 70 educators and community members attended the luncheon, sponsored by the Huron Chamber Governmental Affairs Committee and the Huron Kiwanis Club.

The principal of Holy Trinity Catholic School, Michelle Schoenfelder, said it has seen slow, but steady growth for several years.

“We now have 81 students in grades K through five,” she said. Holy Trinity also has a preschool on site. She said they hold fundraisers throughout the year to help keep tuition rates down. The largest of these is the Diamonds and Denim auction.

“The community and the public are wonderful about donating items to auction,” Schoenfeder said. They are also wonderful about bidding and buying, she added. One of the highlights for the fifth graders is the holiday bazaar they hold each December. This culminates the study on business and marketing led by Junior Achievement volunteers.

James Valley Christian School also knows about the generosity of the Huron community. Lud Hohm, JCVS board president, said tuition covers less than 50 percent of its operating budget. The remainder is raised through fundraisers such as the autumn auction and a musical production each spring. This year’s auction features an ATV and many quilts and the school will present “Heidi” in the spring.

“We have never turned anyone away who could not afford the tuition,” he said. “We’ve always found a way to make it happen if the family was serious about working with us.”

He said James Valley is comprised of 174 students from 14 different denominations and come from 21 different churches, making it a truly nondenominational Christian school. The goal is to give the children a good education in a Christ-centered environment, to nurture spiritual depth as well as a strong moral base.

Ross Opsal, Huron School District superintendent of schools, informed the audience that the district was established in 1880 and covers about 400 square miles. Enrollment has declined slightly and now stands at 2,104 students. Besides the four elementary schools, middle and high schools, there is a vocational building, an alternative program, AIM High, at the high school, an alternative school, Pride High, at the Huron Arena and two colony schools located at Huron and Riverside colonies.

“The district also leases space to the Head Start program and provides services for Our Home, Holy Trinity, James Valley Christian and the home schoolers in Huron,” said Opsal.

Huron is one of the most diversified districts in the state with 20 percent of the students non-white. Opsal said 10 percent of those are Hispanic with about 3 percent each of Asian, Native American and black students.

“At the high school, 25 percent of the students didn’t grow up in Huron,” said Opsal. “and four or five years ago there were 40 English-as-a-second-language students, whereas today there are 280.”

Opsal shared some other, lesser known statistics with the group, stating that the district buses 627 students per day for a total of 1,159 miles daily and that the food service department prepares 406 breakfasts and serves 1,652 lunches each day.

The last speaker was Steve Ochsner, executive director of the Huron Community Campus. His office is in the Huron Fine Arts Center. He explained that HCC is a host institution, bringing programs in from other schools such as Dakota Weslyan University and Mitchell Area Technical Institute.

“Our biggest challenge right now is to continue to find classes we can bring to Huron,” he said.

Ochsner said there are three major challenges and several positive things currently facing HCC. First is finding the courses and programs to offer in Huron, second is to get the word out to the community and the last is finding the students.

“We now have 50 full-time students and several part-time ones,” he said.

On the positive side, Ochsner said they are gaining more programs all the time. He said there will be more courses being offered from Northern State University next year. There will also be seven more options from Mitchell Tech offering all first year requirements in Huron. This will give returning students a chance to complete half of a two-year degree without uprooting their families and at a much lower cost. New next year will be a graduate program for teachers, a teaching degree, expanded nursing program and a computer lab.

Ochsner said financial aid is available now more than ever. “Now is the time for laid-off or displaced workers to consider continuing their education,” he said. “We have a lot of aid out there to help.”

Whatever the age, from preschool through adult, and whatever the need, from parochial to traditional to alternative education, the Huron area has it and the Huron community supports it.

For the complete article see the 11-20-2009 issue.

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