Hill City High School receives national honor for lecturers, curriculum

RAPID CITY, S.D. — On Monday, a report rating the highest excessive colleges in South Dakota was launched with two West River colleges within the high spots. Rapid City Stevens High School was slightly below Hill City, taking the highest spot.

The U.S News and World Report releases an inventory yearly for the highest highschool in every state.

This yr, for the second time, Hill City High School was named the highest faculty within the state. Hill City School District Superintendent Blake Gardner is happy with the accomplishment, however doesn’t take any of the credit score.

“We have a extremely nice tradition proper now,” Gardner mentioned. “We have clever youngsters, we have now fantastic employees and we have now actually supportive dad and mom and group members. We are all on the identical staff with the identical objective.”

The examine measures rankings primarily based on standards, reminiscent of state-testing proficiency and commencement charge. For Hill City, findings noticed that over 60 % of scholars reached proficiency ranges throughout science, math and studying scores — with commencement charge at 97 %.

But even with the excessive marks for the college, Gardner can be remaining constructive to the general public schooling panorama.

“These indicators favor us as a college district, however I feel there’s a variety of nice issues happening in public schooling proper now. For us, clearly the superior placement programs, and the success charges that we have now there. Our proficiency on the state stage testing favor us, however once more, there’s nice issues in South Dakota public schooling,” Gardner defined. “You know, I look and Rapid City Stevens is the quantity two faculty. So, West River — we’re performing some actually good issues.”

And as he and the college district proceed to maintain the development going, he’s conscious of what it takes to run program.

“You can’t have good programming with out nice lecturers and with out sensible youngsters, and that’s actually the blueprint for us,” Gardner mentioned. “We are all in with the identical staff and the identical objective, and that’s the perfect schooling for our youngsters.”