SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – The superintendent of South Dakota’s largest school district announced her resignation last week, saying she’ll be stepping down at the end of this school year.

When Jane Stavem took over as superintendent of the Sioux Falls School District, the district was still dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“This is a situation that’s still unfolding. There’s still details and our guidance changes even from day to day,” Stavem said in 2020.

Now, as she gets ready to step down, Stavem says she’s proud of the work the District did to get through that unprecedented time.

“Our trend lines are going in a good direction after the whole nation kind of, you know, took a backward step with COVID,” Stavem said. “Really proud of our staff and our district just for getting through that pandemic. The ripples that have come from that have been significant. You’ve seen our efforts to work on attendance and just the academic pieces of that. We’re headed in a good direction.”

During a recent news conference, Stavem listed a few other things she’s proud to have been a part of.

“The barn that’s going to be built onto CTE with our ag program and we have kids playing the guitar all over our school district and our Community Learning Centers, getting that model really cemented for our after-school programs,” Stavem said. “Those are things that I really hope are legacy projects that far at last me.”

She also mentioned the new central Sioux Falls middle school that’s in the works.

“Our Whittier kids deserve a brand new, beautiful middle school,” Stavem said.

Stavem still has seven months left with the District, but she noted one of the challenges her successor might face.

“We’ve raised teacher compensation significantly over the last five years,” Stavem said. “We were at about 38,000 when I came and we’re well over 50 now. But that teacher shortage is going to be a pain point really for all districts everywhere, not just even in South Dakota.”

As of Friday, the Sioux Falls School Board hadn’t had any solid conversations about the next steps for finding Stavem’s replacement. However, they say they aren’t ruling anything out between internal candidates or a nationwide search.