HURON — A unique partnership including four Heartland area school districts has led to a huge shot in the arm for Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.

The Huron School District has partnered with Sanborn Central, Wolsey-Wessington and Hitchcock-Tulare to share CTE courses and to help facilitate the sharing of resources, Jolene Konechne, the CTE director for Huron applied for S.D. Department of Education grants earmarked for CTE use.

Earlier this month, Konechne received word that the school has been awarded a Workforce Education Grant of $225,000 that will be used for the upcoming CTE-centered addition to Huron High School.

While making a presentation at Monday’s Huron School Board meeting on the addition, Konechne and Huron Superintendent Dr. Kraig Steinhoff received notice that the school had been selected to receive a $1,516,093 CTE Collaborative Grant, which will be used for equipment in existing CTE spaces, as well as for the new classrooms and labs that will be part of the addition.

The grants were made possible by Senate Bill 59 from the 2023 legislative session, which allocated $5 million for CTE programs throughout the state.

The first challenge of preparing for expanded programming was to identify which courses should be added to the current list of CTE already offered. Students in grades 8-11 were surveyed to identify the most desired courses.

The requests wanted by the students and needs of business and industry included Introduction to Law & Public Safety, Small Engines, Childcare/Education, Machine Tool Technology, Precision Agriculture/Agriculture Mechanics and Aviation.

After SB-59 became law, area superintendents met to discuss potential sharing opportunities of CTE programming.

Ultimately, four superintendents and districts including Sanborn Central Superintendent Corey Flatten, Wolsey-Wessington Superintendent Tom Rice, Hitchcock-Tulare Superintendent Jeff Clark and Steinhoff agreed to collaborate and apply for the CTE Collaborative Grant.

The application included two rotational units: a mobile meat processing lab and a small engine lab. Both rotational units will be housed in enclosed trailers and rotate from school to school for their CTE instructors. The goal is to have the mobile labs in use beginning with the 2024-2025 school year.

In addition, students from Sanborn Central, Hitchcock-Tulare, and Wolsey-Wessington will have the opportunity to take new CTE classes offered at Huron High School. The new courses include: Diesel Technology, ATV/Small Engine Mechanics, Machine Tool Technology, Ag Processing Technology, Fundamental Ag Mechanical Technologies, and Fundamentals of Aviation. Tuition for the courses will be assessed on a student count and the schools will pay the Huron School District to help cover the cost of the programs.

The goal is to start the new courses and include students from the partner schools beginning with the 2025-2026 school year. The sharing is a win-win because it allows all schools access to additional CTE courses for the students. CTE programs integrate academic knowledge with technical skills, preparing students for careers through hands-on training and industry-aligned curriculum.

By emphasizing real-world applications and essential employability skills, CTE equips students with the tools they need for success in both college and the workforce in fields such as agriculture, healthcare, hospitality, engineering, and more.

The Willow Lake School District will receive a $278,212 DOE grant to enable the exchange of programs with the Clark School District, while both the CTE Academy in Sioux Falls (serving students in Baltic, Brandon Valley, Garretson, Harrisburg, Parker, the Sioux Falls schools, Tea, Tri-Valley and West Central) and the Northeast Technical High School in Watertown (serving Waverly-South Shore, Watertown, Summit, Henry, Florence and Castlewood students) both received $1,000,000 grants.