MUSTANG HOOFBEAT

Greetings,

Classified employees are the secretaries, cooks, paraprofessionals, and maintenance crews who keep our schools running. I want to say a special word about two groups whose work touches every student, every day.

Educational assistants can be the difference between a child struggling and a child succeeding. They sit beside students learning to read, support those with special needs, and give small groups the individual attention a busy classroom can't always provide. They also give each building another set of adult eyes and ears, enhancing the overall safety for our students.

Custodians create the conditions for learning before the first bell rings. A clean, safe, well-maintained building is not a luxury. It keeps children healthy, protects our community's investment in its facilities, and tells students and staff that they matter. When a custodian stays late to clean up for a snowstorm or a community event, they serve all of us.

Yet like most districts, we face real challenges in recruiting quality classified staff. We are currently accepting applications for educational assistants and custodians at this time. If you, or someone you know, may be interested in either of these positions; please don’t hesitate to apply. All of our district’s job openings can be found on the Tri-Valley website or at https://trivalley.tedk12.com/hire/index.aspx

Respectfully,

Dr. Mike Lodmel, Superintendent

For more detailed news from the high school. Click the button below for the October Newsletter.

Our middle school students are off to a great start. They have truly been Striving for Excellence. During our 7th period WIN (What I Need) Reading class, our students have been working on skills related to Reading Informational Texts. They have been practicing annotating text, picking out central ideas, and discussing author's purpose among many other skills. We have been getting helpful feedback from Interim Assessments during this period, allowing us to adjust instruction to meet the needs of instructional groups.

We hope to see you on Thursday, October 8th from 2:00-8:00 pm for Parent Teacher Conferences. We will have our conferences in the commons. Please see below for details on the availability of your students' teachers.

Special Education

Mrs. DeJong and Mr. Herrboldt will be available in their rooms from 2:00-8:00 pm except during their meal time.

6th - 8th Grade

All of the 6th through 8th grade classroom teachers will be available at tables in the commons from 2:00pm-8:00 pm. Please have a list of your students' teachers so you know who to find. If you do not have a list with you, we will be able to print one off for you in the office. For your planning purposes, the times teachers will be unavailable are below. Please keep in mind that this has been set up so we do not have an entire grade level of teachers out of the commons at the same time. Please plan to meet with the teachers accordingly, keeping these supper breaks in mind as teachers will be expected to leave their tables at their assigned times.

The following teachers will be unavailable from 5:00-5:30 pm:

Mrs. Ebert

Mrs. Karst

Mr. DeWitt

Mr. Hausman

Mrs. DeJong

Mrs. Van Voorst

Miss Morris

Miss Hoeke

Mrs. Byers

The following teachers will be unavailable from 5:30-6:00 pm:

Mr. Grady

Ms. Phillips

Mr. Leuning

Mr. Jorgensen

Mr. Bazata

Mr. Wodahl

Mr. Nihart

Mr. Herrboldt

The following teachers teach both high school and middle school and will be available in the high school:

Mr. Hoffman

Mr. Van Moer

Mr. Peterson

Mrs. DeWitt

Mrs. Van Voorst will be available in her office in the band room from 2:00-8:00 pm.

6th grade parents: Mr. Saur will be leaving conferences at 3:00 pm. He will be in contact with you with how to communicate with him for a conference if you are unable to catch him before he leaves.

Please keep in mind you may experience some wait times as you move around to your students' teachers. Teachers will do their best to communicate with all families. If you cannot attend please email your students' teachers and they will be happy to communicate with you. Sometimes it may be appropriate for a teacher to set up a time to meet with you individually if you have specific concerns to address, but we would not be able to set up a time for all teachers to be available to meet with you in the event you cannot attend conferences at the scheduled date.

Mr. Derik Fossum

Middle School Principal

Dear Parents and Guardians,

We hope your family is enjoying a great start to the school year! It’s hard to believe how quickly the weeks are passing. With the first quarter ending on October 16, and reports cards going home October 21, we want to take a moment to celebrate the progress our students have made. Our students have been working hard, learning new skills, and growing each day.

Parent-Teacher Conferences are coming up on Thursday, October 8 from 2:00 – 8:00 pm. Conferences are a great time to visit with your child’s teacher, learn more about their academic and social growth, and talk about goals for the rest of the year. Teachers have shared conference sign-up information, so please check your email and choose a time that works for your family. To make conference night a little easier for families, our high school FBLA students will once again provide a daycare service at the school during conferences.

With fall temperatures becoming cooler, please remember to send your child to school prepared for changing weather. Jackets, layers, and appropriate shoes are especially important for chilly mornings and outdoor recess. Having the right clothing helps ensure students can stay comfortable and enjoy their time outside.

Thank you for your continued partnership and support throughout the school year. We appreciate all you do to help our students learn and succeed, and we look forward to visiting with you during conferences!

Sincerely,

Josh Carda

Principal, Tri-Valley Elementary — Crooks

Upcoming Dates

October 8th - Parent Teacher Conferences

October 9th - No School

October 12th - No School

October 16th - End of 1st Quarter

November 19th - Family Night

November 24th - Kindergarten/1st/2nd Winter Concert

December 3rd - 3rd/4th Winter Concert

Join us for "Adventures in Reading"

Thursday, October 8 from 2:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Tri-Valley Colton Elementary Library - https://www.scholastic.com/bf/trivalleycoltones1

Tri-Valley Crooks Elementary Library - https://www.scholastic.com/bf/crookselementary

JK-5th -Colton: Call 605-446-3538

JK-5th grade, Dana Sundal; Press 0 to reach Mrs. Sundal or email dana.sundal@k12.sd.us

Middle School: Call 605-446-3538

6th-8th Grade; Press Option 1 then Option 1 to reach Mrs. Stacy Bunde or email stacy.bunde@k12.sd.us

High School: Call 605-446-3538

9th -12th grade, Christy Oberg; Option 3 then Option 1 to reach Mrs. Oberg or email christy.oberg@k12.sd.us

Elementary - Crooks: Call 605-543-5500

Early Childhood-4th, Joni Bunde; Option 1 to reach Mrs. Joni Bunde or email joni.bunde@k12.sd.us

At all schools, if the secretary does not answer your call, please leave a message! You can also reach us through Rooms.

The Tri-Valley School District will be making room in their educational filing systems this winter by destroying old special education records. It is Tri-Valley School District’s policy to maintain special education records for a period of five and a half years after special education services have ended for the student. Special education services end when a student no longer is eligible for services, they graduate, they complete their educational program on June 30th of the year after they turn 21, or after 5.5 years of continuous absence from the Tri-Valley School District.

Therefore, all special education files of students who graduated in 2021 or have not been enrolled at Tri-Valley for more than 5.5 years will be destroyed after November 30, 2026. Any person wishing to request their special education records from the Tri-Valley School District instead of allowing them to be destroyed should contact the district prior to November 30, 2026. After 5.5 years, the records are no longer useful to the district, but they may be useful to the parent/guardian or former student in applying for Social Security benefits, rehabilitation services, college entrance, etc.

The parent/guardian or eligible (adult) student may request a copy of the records in writing or in person at the following address:

Tri-Valley School District

Attn: Kate Haar

46450 252nd St

Colton, SD, 57018

Phone: 605-446-3538 or 605-543-5500

Fax: 605-446-3520

Destination Imagination

Are you ready to get started?

Destination Imagination is a world-wide, creative problem-solving program that we offer at Tri-Valley. It’s open to students at all grade levels and involves creating teams of peers that work together throughout the next several months, towards competition in the spring.

For more information please contact Maria Kendle at maria.kendle@k12.sd.us.

Current 7th and 8th Graders your East Coast Trips are coming! I know Summer 2027 seems like it is a ways away, and Summer 2028 seems like a long way away, but it is amazing how quickly the time goes by and it is never too early to start planning. These will be our 9th and 10th annual trips.

On this trip you will get to experience so many amazing things! We will start out the trip by touring our nation’s capital and the area around it and many amazing sites within it. We will visit the Smithsonian, the National Monuments, Mount Vernon the home of George Washington, the U.S. Capitol Building, see the White House, and Arlington National Cemetery. Then we travel to New York City and take a bite out of the Big Apple and experience the City That Never Sleeps! In New York we will visit the top of one of the skyscrapers, see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, take walking tours through the city seeing Wall Street, the 9/11 Memorial, Central Park, Times Square and other sites, see a show on Broadway, and many other experiences before we fly back home.

If you are currently a 7th grader your trip will take place at the end of your 8th grade year in summer of 2028. If you are currently an 8th grader your trip will take place the Summer of 2027. Enrollment is open to both trips and both trips are open to all current 7th and 8th graders and their family members for enrollment. I hope you will join us on either the 2027 or 2028 trip!

The link for the 2027 trip: https://www.efexploreamerica.com/tour-website/2865062HN

The link for the 2028 trip: https://www.efexploreamerica.com/tour-website/3050715PX

Please contact Mr. DeWitt if you have any questions. brandon.dewitt@k12.sd.us

There are so many amazing things going on in our country for the 4th of July and our 250th celebration. Many of those exciting things are happening in Washington D.C. and 29 Mustang students and parents got a chance in June to witness the excitement in person. In June our group of 29 people spent June 5th-10th in Washington D.C. and New York City. We had an amazing trip jampacked with sightseeing and the wonderful experiences those two cities have to offer.

We landed at 11:00 am on June 5th. From there it was straight to Washington D.C. to start our day. Once we arrived in the city members of our group had a variety of choices to see. They could choose to tour the Holocaust Museum, the African American History Museum, the Air and Space Museum, or any of the other Smithsonian that they wanted to visit. After our evening meal it was off to tour the monuments by the setting sun.

June 6th started with an early tour of the Tidal Basin where we got to visit the Jefferson Memorial and the MLK Memorial. We had a photo stop at the Supreme Court building and then found time to visit what I consider the most beautiful building in D.C., The Library of Congress. We then headed to tour the U.S. Capitol. After our lunch we left to visit the amazing Mt. Vernon, George Washington’s home. We followed that up with our evening meal and some time on the National Harbor where we rode the Capital Wheel and got a chance to watch the Air Force band who just happened to be performing that night.

June 7th included a morning visit to Arlington National Cemetery where our group got to learn the history of the cemetery and watch the changing of the guard. We stopped at the Marine Corps Memorial and then we said Washington D.C. goodbye, and we were off to NYC! We had our evening meal and headed UP to the top of The Edge. It is a skyscraper with an open-air platform that has a glass floor you can stand on and look down.

June 8th we headed to the boat ride where we toured the harbor with beautiful views of the city and stopped at Ellis Island then visited Liberty Island where we got to get up close to the Statue of Liberty. We followed lunch with a walking tour of the Financial District where we saw Wall St., Federal Hall, Trinity Church, and stopped at the 9/11 Memorial. Then we got our official NYC subway ride in and headed to our evening meal. After the evening meal we were off to Times Square and Broadway! Our group got to see the show The Great Gatsby.

June 9th we got into town a little early, so people had their chance to get an official New York bagel if they wanted to. We then took a walking tour of Midtown with stops at Grand Central, Rockefeller Center, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. After lunch we took a walk across Central Park. We would’ve had a chance to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art “The Met”, but our group had somewhere else to be. We decided to visit the 9/11 Museum instead. We were back on the subway. After a deep learning experience at 9/11 we walked to the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and ate our evening meal in Brooklyn then took the subway back to the city.

June 10th the final day. We started with some more sight-seeing around Rockefeller Center before we took our tour of Radio City Music Hall. We then headed off to a famous spot for lunch, Chelsea Market. After Chelsea Market we got to walk off lunch visiting Little Island, an amazing “artificial island and a public park within Hudson River Park, just off the western coast of Manhattan in New York City.” Then it was off to the airport to catch our flights home.

If you and your student (or just your student) are still considering joining one of the next trips in 2027 or 2028, there is still time to sign up and we still have space for you. Please reach out to me with questions or if you are curious ask someone who just went on our East Coast Trip about the trip. brandon.dewitt@k12.sd.us

🍀 THE TRAVEL TIMES

Special Edition: Ireland & Scotland 2029

Pack your bags. We’re going across the pond!

🏰 CASTLES
☘️ IRELAND
🎻 SCOTLAND
🌊 CLIFFS & COASTLINES
📸 A MILLION PHOTOS
✈️ ONE UNFORGETTABLE ADVENTURE

DUBLIN → BELFAST → SCOTLAND → EDINBURGH

Imagine walking through Dublin, exploring the Titanic Museum in Belfast, seeing the stunning Irish coast, crossing to Scotland, and standing inside Edinburgh Castle.

And yes… you can come with us!

IRELAND + SCOTLAND

June 2029 • 8 Days

Come see what’s waiting on the other side of the Atlantic.

Contact mandy.dewitt@k12.sd.us for details

Or check her school website

Coming up in October: We will have a pumpkin decorating contest in Advisories October 26th-28th with judging on October 29th! If you are able to donate large pumpkins or paint, please reach out to megan.karst@k12.sd.us (Student Council Advisor). We will need a total of 12 pumpkins!

The TVHS Fears and Phobias Haunted House will be on Friday, October 30th in the Middle School.

Trick-or-Treating - 5:00 to 6:00 pm/Free Will Donations.

Full Scare - 7:00 to 10:30 pm.

More details will be published on our website.

Proceeds go to the participating student organizations.