Last updated on 2025-10-15
The Oldham-Ramona-Rutland school board is throwing in the towel…
[Update 2025.10.15: …or so it might seem if you just read the board minutes! As indicated by vehement responses from some locals in the comment section below, and as clarified in my e-mail interaction with ORR superintendent Dawn Hoeke, the ORR board remains committed to preserving the district. The board approved the dissolution plan to fulfill statutory requirements created when residents filed a petition for dissolution. The plan must pass a public vote. See the legal details in my October 15 post; I retain this original post, with a revision to the headline from “to Dissolve” to “May Dissolve”, to explain the proposed dissolution.]
…After consolidating two school districts just a couple years ago to preserve some semblance of community in the lonesome factory-farmland of northern Lake and southeast Kingsbury counties but facing persistent opposition to the practical implementation of consolidation, the ORR school board at its August 27 meeting put in motion a plan to dissolve the district:
The plan was first approved on Aug. 27 by the ORR school board, including a district map indicating how ORR property would be absorbed into neighboring districts, all land valuations within the district and all ORR assets among others, due to some disputes with the DOE the plan had to be reapproved at their meeting in October.
During their meeting in October, Dawn Hoeke, superintendent of the ORR school district discussed the updated project stating that the DOE had requested updated valuations for Moody County and reviewing where playground equipment will go.
…Now, ORR will resubmit their plan to the districts that would absorb it, followed the South Dakota Department of Education; if the state approves, the reorganization/dissolution plan would be decided by ORR voters, after which an election date would be set for the district. According to the document, if passed, the dissolution of the ORR school district would be effective June 30, 2026 [Michael Doorn, “Oldham-Ramona-Rutland Moving Ahead with Dissolution Plan,” KELO-TV, 2025.10.09].
At stake in this carve up are 317 square miles of taxable property valued at $537 million dollars. The dissolution plan compares the value of its taxable property with the adjoining districts that will absorb its bits:
- Oldham-Ramona-Rutland School District 39-6 = $536,774,379
- Arlington School District 38-1 = $326,442,189
- Chester School District 39-1 = $502,865,092
- Madison Central School District 39-2 = $1,364,847, 364
- Colman-Egan School District 50-5 = $307,881,110
- Brookings School District 05-1 = $2,422,001,278
- Howard School District 48-3 = $787,524,003
- Sioux Valley School District 05-5 = $546,366,835
- Lake Preston School District 38-3 = $408,093,127
- DeSmet School District 38-2 = $611,303,815
Brookings, Desmet, and Chester will get the smallest bits of ORR; Arlington, Howard, and Madison, the largest:
After receiving a petition in March from 190 district residents demanding dissolution, the school district sent a letter to all district landowners asking what district they preferred to be drawn into. The result was this gerrymander (I have overlaid the ORR boundaries in cyan):
I appreciate the school board’s continuing and magnanimous effort to please its recalcitrant and disunited constituents, but now is a good time to file off the rough edges of those districts and create some sensible, straight boundaries. I propose this alternative map, distributing ORR to adjoining districts in nice, contiguous, rectangulated chunks:
My alternative map shows a little more respect for county lines: Howard gets the Miner County sections of ORR; the Kingsbury sections go to DeSmet, Lake Preston, and Arlington along straight extensions of their existing boundaries; and Colman-Egan gets ORR’s Moody County sections. Madison gets all of ORR’s holdings in northwestern Lake County. I break county lines to send the northeast/Nunda chunk of ORR in Lake County up to Volga/Sioux Valley and the eastern square of ORR in Lake County north of Wentworth to Colman-Egan, though I could be persuaded that Madison should just take the whole north half of Lake County. My straight lines cut Brookings and Chester out of the dissolution completely, since they’re both farther away than other potential attendance centers.
Madison will take on the duty of retaining all of ORR’s official educational records. Madison also stands to gain both of ORR’s old school buildings, in Ramona and Rutland, unless those two towns choose to take those properties. ORR will donate some portion of its remaining funds to those towns for utilities and maintenance, but if Ramona and Rutland decline, ORR will give the buildings to Madison without any cash. What Ramona, Rutland, or Madison would do with either of those properties is anyone’s guess, since if those towns can’t sustain a school district, they probably can’t sustain any sort of industry or residential interest that would make those buildings anything but money losers.
ORR also plans to transfer eleven buses to its absorbing districts, playground equipment to the City of Ramona, and school technology equipment to the absorbing districts. As a lovely parting gift, staff and students will get to keep one-to-one computers and tablets issued to them during this last school year. Other school vehicles will be sold to the highest bidders.
Now, if Oldham-Ramona-Rutland can accede to its local forces of disunion, can we turn to breaking up South Dakota to save the federal government some money? Or how about thinking bigger and breaking up the United States of America into coastal allies of Canada that retain faith in science and democracy and a vast inner hinterland that prefers ignorance and autocracy?
Awww … That’s too bad. My great grandfather on my mother’s side, Paul Case, operated a butcher shop in Oldham in the early 20th century. I guess states decline from the bottom up.
Many friends here in CO are from several Ramona families.
They’ll be disappointed but the tales of high school basketball games between those towns will continue always.
This is an unfortunate situation of a poor site for the construction of a new school campus (Nunda corner on Hwy. 81) that could not get approval from voters in repeated bond elections followed by a school board unwilling to seek a compromise to the building needs of the newly consolidated school district. Major distrust of the board caused patrons to circulate petitions to dissolve with maybe half the student population already transferring to neighboring districts.
The disolution of the US was the plan since the mid 1990’s by russia. I think that it still seems more workable today. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/06/map-of-the-day-ex-kgb-analyst-predicts-balkanization-of-us/58945/
Also, the land values seem overpriced now with trump trade war with China, a whole crop and future ones, are gone and China ain’t coming back. Time to put back USAID to feed the starving and forgetaboutit the soy and ethanol. Venture capitalists are circling like Turkey Buzzards.
Rambler, what makes the center of the district on a main road a “poor site” for a school?
Jerry, interesting history! Breaking up the U.S. would be Putin’s perfect revenge. But even if Putin wants it, a break-up might still be a good idea.
Wouldn’t it be funny if we found a bunch of sleeper agents sent by Madison and Arlington to foment distrust of the ORR board and break up the district?
The geographic center was nowhere close to the center of where the student population was and it caused all of the Wentworth area students to transfer almost from the start of the process. A more feasible site would have been on the oil road in the area of the Lake Madison church midway between Rutland and Ramona communities. The Oldham students left 30 years ago when the Oldham district folded.
Wow, the school board is not giving up, they are following the law. They are required to put a plan out, but we still have a vote to come. Not everyone is in favor of dissolving. We have a lot 9f kids from all across the district and beyond that choose ORR for reasons of their own. Maybe this report should investigate the facts before starting with its closing! That is not the case as of right now!!!!!!
This is misinformation. Dissolution goes to a vote before it is decided and that date has not been set yet! Would be best to check the facts before posting an article like this as it is very misleading!
This is completely inaccurate. The board is required to make a plan after receiving a petition by law, but is in no way throwing in the towel. The voters will show up when it’s time and say that this school is very much still appreciated and wanted by the district. #ORRstrong
I don’t know where you got this information but you’re totally wrong. There’s going to be a vote first why put this out there if it’s not true it’s not dissolving at the end of the school year. You should be ashamed of yourself putting this out there.
There are many children in the Oldham area that still attend ORR!! My family has 4 children in the district, with many other students getting picked up as well!! SO no the Oldham students have not left even know we are forgotten about!! Best fact check some information about that and the center of the district!!
Sure, there’s gonna be a vote. But a vote against dissolving the district doesn’t solve the practical problem of getting people to vote for and stick around for a truly consolidated district in a consolidated facility that does the practical business of keeping the district open by consolidating services and saving money. Whether that vote will succeed in rejecting the dissolution petition, and actually building the consensus necessary to sustain the school and the community remains very much in question. The number of people who rallied to petition for dissolution suggests that even if they can’t win a majority at the polls, they’ll vote with their feet and leave the district in an unsustainable position with insufficient students to support a viable school district. Are Oldham, Ramona, and Rutland all really going to rally together to not just reject formal dissolution, but build the school necessary to keep the district open?
The school board is not giving up. Board members have taken verbal abuse by individuals who think they are better informed than they are. Last public info session had an individual say less than half feel positive about the new school. Truth was more than 50%were voting yes just not meeting the 60%. Last bond vote included a statement that if the Hwy 81/430 Ave didn’t pass school would be built on the Ramona site. Open enrollment continues to be a sore spot. Some voters don’t consider those students to be apart of the ORR district. It’s really funny cause both schools had open enrollment before consolidation. I admire the school board administration & teachers for staying positive & standing by the decision to provide a new school for the students of the district. The kids want to be ORR Raiders & not loose their school. Families who have disagreed seem to have moved on to other districts. I keep the faith that voters will vote yes & I will again hear the sounds of children at play at the Ramona school
Cory, its not just in the interior, the right leaning penis of America is growing more and more every day. The autocracy viagra lovers are stroking it well. They definitely will be flooded out in the next century because, the no trust in science, delusional “thinking” is extreme.
You want a great way to make money, invest in the makers of iron lungs. You won’t even have to vaccinate your kids soon in Florida. Its really something.
If any fellow knows better than the School Board of the ORR, it would be Mr. H. grudznick trusts the local voters closest to this situation to weigh Mr. H’s words, talk to their neighbors and the fellows at the local stores and cafes, and then vote at a high turnout for the best resolution for the children.