$3.8M in CTE grants awarded to 4 South Dakota schools

SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO)–South Dakota’s Department of Education awarded $3.8 million in grants Tuesday to four Career and Technical Education or CTE programs across the state. It’s all part of a $5 million senate bill the state legislature passed in 2023. the goal behind the investment in tonight’s Your Money Matters.

“Workforce development; I think that’s what it comes back to. We need to make sure that that pipeline exists,” Sioux Falls CTE Academy President Josh Hall said.

CTE academies are one way the state is working to help ensure students can build their careers in South Dakota.

“We partner with over 80 industry companies, you know, and so forth in the Sioux Falls area. So frequently members of industry or people from companies will come into our classrooms and speak to the kids, or we will send kids out or take whole classes out to businesses to show the kids what that industry looks like,” Hall said.

Students at CTE also do job shadows, internships or even part time jobs with these partner companies that help them create a path towards their future career in many different industries.

“We partner very closely with a number of health care institutions in the Sioux Falls area. We do accounting and finance, the welding industry, the auto industry, carpentry, engineering, the culinary areas,” Hall said.

“I’ve kind of always known what I’ve wanted to do: help with my grandparents’ farm,” CTE Academy junior Brody Stenger said. “I want to be in agriculture, work with crop insurance or work on the farm,” Stenger said.

Students like Stenger are exactly why Sioux Falls is using their $1 million  grant from the state to invest in the school’s agriculture and culinary arts program.

“Including a tractor where kids will be able to learn about precision ag and when I say learn, I mean learn by doing like they will be able to program a tractor such as, you know, farmers do, and programming tractors in their fields for planting and fertilizing. And so the kids will get a hands on experience on our campus using some of the latest technology and industry equipment,” Hall said.

Experience that will help students like Brody know exactly how to get started in their new career.

“You know, that’s the goal. I’m planning on taking another class here next year, so it’ll be good to be able to use new equipment,” Stenger said.

Northeast Technical High school in Watertown also received a $1 million grant to expand multiple programs. The Huron School District received a $1.5 million grant to purchase two mobile labs to serve multiple school districts in the region. And Willow Lake received a $278,212 grant to give students in Clark and Willow Lake access to more CTE programs.

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