SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – Tensions were high at a recent Oldham-Ramona-Rutland (ORR) school board meeting as concerns with the location of the new school resurfaced, as well as an effort to dissolve the district entirely. 

At one point, a law enforcement officer who was at the meeting to maintain order had to intervene. 

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“I know this is going to be a tense meeting, but can we please keep it civil as best we can. Can we do that, be adults here,” Joe Gerry with the Lake County Sheriff’s office said. 

The situation started in 2022 when Oldham-Ramona consolidated with Rutland. The district is now working to build a new school. The school board previously approved a bond for a $20 million school to be built in Ramona. 

The new school will be in the same location as the current one, which will be partially torn down. It will open in the fall of 2026 and will have a library for the first time, a new gym and CTE shop. 

However, issues with the school’s location, size, features and cost were rehashed at the March 10 meeting. Motions to approve contracts for construction and land use agreements were up for vote at the March meeting, but board members were split in their vote, despite their unanimous decision earlier this year.

“We can take $20 million, but do we need to take $20 million,” board member Jessica Anderson questioned. “Do we need to build a new gym?”

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“We refused to look at any of the land by Nunda. We just dismissed it without a second thought,” board member Brooke Albertson said. 

Board member Lori Hyland asserted that ORR does need a second gym because other schools refuse to attend sporting events in the current one. Hyland also said there were no other viable options for a different school site, despite the limited land for expansion at the current site.  

Carrie Schiernbeck, another board member, agreed with Hyland. 

“We exhausted survey after survey after survey, alerting our community this is the route we’re going, this is what we’re doing,” Schiernbeck said. “This was the plan when the last bond vote failed. We can’t backtrack now.”

Anderson and Albertson voted against the three motions while Schiernbeck and Hyland voted for them. School Board President Lance Hageman broke the ties with a yes vote.

Anderson resigned from the school board during the meeting, citing the conflict with consolidating the schools. She noted the board’s inability to consider outside opinions and lack of transparency as part of her reason for stepping down. 

“At the February school board meeting, I learned that we are building a two-story building with an extra gym, no football field and a footprint of land we don’t currently own,” Albertson said. “This will be done with the budget using the maximum capital outlay.”

Albertson agreed with Anderson, saying she’s been mistreated by the school board as well.

“This is not an easy job. It is the most difficult board I’ve had to work with. We as a board are extremely dysfunctional,” Albertson said. “When I bring stuff up, I get treated pretty bad.”

While Hageman attempted to get the conversation back on track, a member of the audience called for the removal of Albertson for slandering the board. 

On top of the issues with trying to build a new school, a petition to dissolve the district entirely has been gaining traction. 

The petition, brought forward by Sarah Wilson, needs to be signed by at least 160 residents in the ORR district. If that happens, the board will need to create a dissolution plan to present to the state. As of March 10, the petition had over 100 signatures. 

Wilson spoke to the district’s decreased enrollment, especially from open enrolled students in other districts. She also said 77 in-district students have left for other schools since 2022. 

“If we’re going to stand by and say that we’re really looking at what’s best for the kids, we have six districts surrounding ours within distance that offer more electives, have higher test scores, that are doing better than us academically,” Wilson said. 

“We are hurting (our kids) by not giving them the opportunity to be a part of bigger districts that have more opportunities for them,” she added.