September is school attendance awareness month, and while some school districts earn Blue Ribbon distinctions for their work on keeping classrooms filled, Rapid City has struggled.
This month, the Rapid City Area School Board reported on recent attendance numbers and a notable decline for the district.
New superintendent Jamie Jo Thompson presented the figures at the meeting. The data goes back to 2024.
“The first chart shows our overall district enrollment has decreased by 267 students by the same time last year," Thompson said. "However, you can also see our enrollment has also increased in several schools.”
That enrollment increase is primarily in elementaries that are already at or near capacity.
This additional facility strain comes as the district is considering a bond issue vote that could support costly infrastructure projects at schools like Valley View, which has the highest enrollment increase in the district.
However, attendance is a different challenge.
Thompson said while she sees some victories, she wants full classrooms every single month.
“All of our elementary schools have attendance rates above 90 percent, at this time only North Middle School, Central High School, and our alternative programs have attendance rates below 90 percent," Thompson said. "Our overall district attendance rate is 92.87 percent. That is .27 percent below last years’ attendance rate, which means if we do not intervene it is likely to drop below where it was last year.”
With that in mind, Thompson said now is the time to prioritize attendance.
“A student who can’t read on grade level by third grade is four times less likely to graduate by age 19 than a child who does read proficiently by that time,” Thompson said.
The district is launching an attendance awareness campaign to help combat the lower numbers.