HURON — A proposal to establish a junior kindergarten in Huron was brought before the Huron School Board during Monday night’s meeting.

Heather DeBoer, principal at Buchanan K-1 Center, and Rhonda Kludt, Preschool Partnership coordinator, talked about the merits of allowing some students to wait a year before starting regular classes.

“A student may be age-eligible for kindergarten, but would benefit from a less formal environment for another year,” DeBoer said. “We’re not asking for additional funding or staffing at this point.

“Junior kindergarten is not a replacement, it is an opportunity for children to succeed and develop a foundation for early learning.”

A child needs to be 5 on or before Sept. 1 to attend kindergarten, and junior kindergarten would follow the same guidelines. Children that turn 5 in the summer may need that extra year to mature a little more and be ready for kindergarten.

“It’s a parent’s decision,” she said. “This is just an option for parents who want that extra year. My advice as an educator and parent is if you’re in doubt, wait for that maturity.”

Kludt, who works with the nine preschools in Huron, said every preschool has students they recommend wait another year. Junior kindergarten gives them that extra year in a classroom setting.

“From the pre-K perspective, this is a wonderful opportunity,” Kludt said. “There are 190 students who are kindergarten-age eligible in those preschools.”

There are currently 11 AA districts in South Dakota that have junior kindergarten programs.

The proposal will be on the next School Board agenda for approval.

School Board President Tim VanBerkum highlighted two bills concerning vouchers now in the state legislature, as well as Senate Bill 71, that would allow parents to withdraw their child at 16 or 17 instead of staying in school until age 18.

In his report to the Board, Supt. Kraig Steinhoff said he joined Ted Haeder, Greater Huron Development president, Eric Larson, HRMC president and CEO, and Jeff Clark, the Hitchcock-Tulare School superintendent, to speak at last week’s Senate Education Committee. They discussed how Senate Bill 59 on school partnerships and business and industry partnerships are leading to enhanced educational opportunities.

Steinhoff also attended a presentation on Teammates with Rodney Mittelstedt.

Teammates is a student mentoring program whose mission is to positively impact the world by inspiring students to reach their full potential through mentoring. They plan to bring a recommendation to the administrative team later this spring.

In a review of the Action Research, Steinhoff said they are trying to determine what factors are inhibiting graduation in Huron, and what the school district should be doing about those factors.

The plan is to spend the spring and summer collecting information from other schools and utilize that information as possible options.

Next fall they will analyze student achievement date and conduct surveys with parents, students and staff. In the spring of 2026 they will begin to review the data collected.

“I believe this will be a decade of work once we track the data,” Steinhoff said. “We have to celebrate small successes. We know it’s important to make sure kids all reach their highest potential upon graduation.”

Congratulations were extended to eighth-graders Mara Pell and Lydia Beck, and seventh-grader Taiyen Red Blanket, for qualifying in the South Dakota Music Education Association Middle School All-State Orchestra.

The concert will be Saturday, Feb. 22, at the Mitchell Performing Arts Center.

The Board also approved 10 new hires and two resignations.

Anyone seeking a spot on the Board can begin circulating petitions for the election on Jan. 31, and the deadline for filing petitions is 5 p.m. Feb. 28. The School Board election will be held in conjunction with the city election April 8.