Rapid City Area Schools outlines 2025–26 strategic-plan goals across five pillars

Superintendent Dr. Thompson and district pillar champions presented the Rapid City Area Schools’ 2025–26 strategic-plan short-cycle goals and action steps across five pillars: communications, community, staffing, facilities and students.

Communications and community pillars: staff said district goals are tied to three recurring surveys (district services, employee experience and parent/caregiver surveys). Targets for 2025–26 include a parent/caregiver communication timeliness/clarity goal (3.91) and improving employee understanding of mission and goals. The community pillar includes a target of 6,000 app downloads (roughly 50% of the student body) and a 5% increase in social media followers across platforms. Staff also described a pilot to log volunteer hours at three elementary schools by having on-site visitors scan a QR code or use a link to record basic information and time on campus.

Staffing pillar: Nikki Wojcik, director of human resources, said recruitment and retention are the two primary tracks. The district’s vacancy rate baseline was about 7%; the short-cycle goal is to reduce it toward 6% (a 1%-point shift equivalent to roughly 15 positions). Wojcik also reported a year-over-year turnover rate near 19% and a retention target of 17% for the next year. She said 42% of turnover occurs within the first year of employment and outlined actions including a new employee survey, enhanced onboarding and orientation, job fairs, teacher apprenticeship and student-teacher stipend programs, outreach to recently resigned staff, and a newly formed recruitment-and-retention committee.

Facilities pillar: the district reported progress on a Facility Performance Index (FPI) it developed to measure school-condition metrics. The initial baseline measurement was a 53; the district reported an increase to 60 for 2024–25 and set a 2025–26 target of 61.5. Facilities staff said the district executed many capital outlay projects in fiscal 2025 (81 projects totaling about $7.7 million) and is concentrating fewer, higher-impact projects in fiscal 2026 (about 27 projects totaling $8.0 million). Staff detailed plans to refine FPI criteria, add emerging priorities (for example, outdoor alarm systems), publish a public project dashboard, and align financing options — including planning for possible bond referendum outcomes.

Student pillar (academics, attendance, behavior): academic goals include a 10% growth target for kindergarten and first-grade benchmark scores in ELA and math (district staff said fall kindergarten screening scores were notably higher this year and credited junior kindergarten as a contributing factor). For grades 2–8, the NWEA MAP measures will track both growth and proficiency with a 2% proficiency goal. The district will hold its ACT/PreACT averages steady during the statewide transition to more universal ACT administration.

Attendance and behavior targets were presented in tandem. Attendance staff said the baseline attendance rate was 81% and the annual goal is a 2-percentage-point increase. The district will review and align attendance definitions (excused/unexcused/tardy/partial-day) and pursue a policy revision process: building committees in November, district committee refinement in December, policy committee review in January and board consideration in February with an implementation date of July 1 if adopted.

Behavior staff said past changes in referral reporting had increased recorded major-referral counts; the district reset its baseline to last year’s total of 13,564 major behavior referrals and set a short-cycle reduction goal of 5% (to about 12,885 referrals). District leaders described a district behavior-reset program to begin in November for use at identified sites (Kibben/Custer), Boys Town staff training in October, a building-level tiered-behavior plan, and a behavior coaching team that will coach teachers and build principal capacity. District leaders said 19 students currently participate in a children’s-home placement program and that staff refined the referral pathway to provide more district input before placements.

Operations: Business-manager reporting showed the busing function had 47 active drivers at the time of the report (25 general-education drivers and 22 special-education drivers); the district reported seven open driver positions and three new hires in the CDL pipeline. The manager said route reductions made before the school year and other staffing steps had reduced cancellations but certain days can still approach cancellation risk when call-ins spike.

Next steps: pillar teams will provide midyear progress reports (January–February). Staff said several action items require further resource decisions (e.g., volunteer-coordinator role expansion, capital financing and any bond referendum planning). District leaders asked the board to expect more detailed implementation timelines and costs in future reports.