1871-1900

Sioux Falls School District's Digital Time Capsule

Our Story

Old records indicate the first school opened in 1870 in the Government Barracks under the direction of teacher Mary A. Benton who trained 17 pupils. However, it was the summer of 1871 when newly elected Minnehaha County Superintendent John Bippus divided the county into seven school districts as one of his first official acts. District #1 was comprised of the entire Sioux Falls township. Still, it took another two years for its first school board to be established with elected members being A. Gale, Director; R.F. Pettigrew, Clerk; and D.S. Goodyear, Treasurer.

A Report of Board Minutes by the Person Keeping Them for the Last 30 Years

Hello School Board, Dr. Stavem, Mr. Vik -

As you know I am Bev Chase and I am so pleased to be here to talk a few minutes about how the School Board records and minutes are kept.

Beginning with the minutes of 1871, I have read every set of minutes between then and now—97 books. There were many, many minutes to read….a lot of them in very scrolly handwriting that takes some time to decipher.

What I have found in the minutes over the past 150 years is that as time passes, we do many of the same things year after year that we did in the late 1800s. We count our students today, back then we counted our pupils. We hired staff, adopted budgets, passed bonds to build new schools, built new schools, held elections for new members on the Board (until 2011, the exact same way as in the early 1900’s). Past boards worried about student grades, discipline in the schools, and illness in schools just like we do today (in the old days think TB, Yellow Fever, Polio; today think COVID).

As time marches on the happenings at schools have continued…we still teach reading, writing, and arithmetic like in days gone past, but now we include STEM, CTE, Project Based Learning, Language Immersion, and technology has infiltrated every aspect of schools, from administration to teaching to student learning.

I like to tell people our schools are doing the same thing we did last century, but we do it so much better; and we don’t stop just teaching. We also provide meals, social workers, skilled nurses, counselors, transportation, fine arts, and many, many athletic and PE activities for our students…all of which is documented in the minute books.

We have gone from handwriting minutes, to typing them on manual typewriters, to electric typewriters, to word processors, and finally moving on to computers…

The minutes used to be by Board meeting date only, it was hard to find things from year-to-year…so July 13, 1931, the School Board adopted Action #1, we began tonight’s meeting at Action 38962, so that is a lot of actions taken by many school boards. In the late 60’s we adopted a minute reference file ( the MRF) which allows for a system of saving all the reports of every school board meeting. Back then we wrote MRF numbers on the paper documents, along with the date and the school board action and filed the paper documents---never to be destroyed….today we record the action/date/mrf numbers on the pdf and move the pdf file from my computer to our file director document storage system, all without producing a piece of paper. We have scanned all of the minute books and mrfs into the file director system, but we also keep the official minute books as required by state statute.

So today if you asked to see minutes from 1935, I would call them up on our File Director System, and if you asked about a certain agenda item like enrollments…we could find what you are looking for without going to paper or opening fragile old books.

There are many interesting stories in the minute books, many of them we would shake our heads today and just say WOW. One of my favorites is from the rural school, Lincoln Elementary, way out in the country (today this address is 9th and Grange.) It seems some boys were brought before the School Board to answer for not singing in music class…when the School Board President asked why they weren’t singing…the boys answered that they were looking at one of the boy’s new gun that he brought to school because he was going rabbit hunting on his way home. The boys were admonished by the Board to sing when their teacher asked them to and they said they would.

Case Closed.

Whittier Middle School in the Early Years

Enrollment on the First Day of the First Years

The "Principals Report" indicates the District operated seven schools: The High School and K-8 Schools Irving, Lowell, Lincoln, Hawthorne, Whittier and Longfellow.

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History of Lowell Elementary School 1891 to Today

Lowell Elementary was the 7th school building by the Sioux Falls School District in the Summit Addition. The land purchase was a big commitment for that time – priced at $1000 and situated at Prairie Avenue and what is now 18th Street. James Byrne was awarded the contract and the building – made of quartzite with slate shingles - was completed on October 1, 1891. Many residents couldn’t understand why a fine school such as this one would be built “way out in the country.” – Remember, this is Prairie Avenue and 18th Street… which is considered close to the heart of Sioux Falls today.

The school was named after American author James Russell Lowell who had recently passed.

The building has endured three fires in its 130 years. The first was on January 23, 1906 when the inside of the building was destroyed. The story is that at approximately 11 o’clock, someone noticed a bright light in the location of the basement’s coal bin – shortly after there was a terrible explosion. Reports indicate an unknown had been seen running from the area with a lantern, but the cause of the fire was never determined.

Sioux Falls was bustling with progress in the late 1890s and records indicate that there were some tumultuous times for school leadership. Members of the board and were elected, then relieved of their duties. A superintendent was named and then rescinded in favor of another.

Five years after opening “way out in the country,” Lowell had 206 students. In this attendance book, Carl Anthony, age 15 and son of Edwin Anthony at 709 Walts Avenue, was listed first on the Lowell roll call list. At that time, there were three school divisions Primary, A, B, C, D. Grammar A, B, C, D and high School A, B, C, D. Grammar B would indicate he was receiving 6th grade instruction at Lowell. A record of teachers and salaries in 1900 indicates Mrs. B.L. Saunders, who served as principal and 8th grade teacher, made $65 for the year.

A large section was added to Lowell in 1936 and another again in 1967. The lower level of the building housed the Practical Nursing Program offered by what is now Southeast Technical College.

After the 1967 addition, the “old Lowell” was torn down. The bell, however, was saved…. But not without controversy. Records indicated that four groups attempted to lay claim to the bell – the demolition company, the salvage crew, the school board and the PTA. The PTA was eventually victorious and the free standing bell tower on the southeast corner of the school still stands today.

Lowell Elementary has served central Sioux Falls families in many ways… including leading the charge for development of Math, Science and Technology curriculum in the early 2000s and most recently Code to the Future – a project-based curriculum that taught students how to use computer coding in their daily work.

The school continues to be an integral part of the Pettigrew Heights neighborhood and serves as a hub for bringing families together. Area churches and groups like Promising Futures and parents have come alongside Lowell students and staff members as valued partners in education.