Sunday, February 21, 2016

Oppose Lead Deadwood School District Study Options that either abandon or re-purpose the 1924 Brick Deadwood School Building

The Lead Deadwood School District met briefly on 2-09-16, toured the Deadwood School Building and issued new "Code Words" to throw the 1924 Deadwood School Building under the bus. Superintendent LEIKVOLD along with KOSTERS, and KARPINEN want "BETTER EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FOR CHILDREN" AND "BETTER BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE". THESE ARE ACTUALLY CODE WORDS FOR GETTING RID OF THE 1924 DEADWOOD SCHOOL BUILDING!! They agreed and are going to hire consultants to study four options. The first three options are smoke screen ideas that involve Deadwood location and the fourth is their desired "move everthing to Lead".

The 1924 Deadwood School Building that has stood for years as fully functioning school. It was emasculated in 1972 and become part of the Lead Deadwood School District centered in Lead. Now it's final death knell is close!  The old 1886 portion of the school was lost to arson fire in 1985.  The whole 1924 brick school building was completely reburished and that time.

Mr. Burger who served 36 years as Superintendent of the Deadwood School District was saddened by this 1972 merger and confided to his family that it would be the end of the Deadwood School. All the school records in his office safe were doomed to be misplaced or lost. Little did Mr. Burger know the extent of Deadwood School artifacts like trophies/awards and anything representing Deadwood School like auditorium chairs and the famous pine tree stage backdrop.

We all need to oppose The Deadwood School Building loss or sad commercial re-purposing.

We need a NEW Dr. Howe's determined Deadwood School support and the spirit of Charlie Keene to face the opposition. 

Read the following historical link about the The Deadwood School :

http://www.dhsclassmates.com/2007/10/interesting-story-of-deadwood-school-by.html

Friday, February 12, 2016

The 1924 brick building built to serve as "The Deadwood School" is now in jeopardy !!

LEAD 02-09-2016 — Following a short discussion at Tuesday’s Lead-Deadwood School Board meeting and a facility tour of the Lead-Deadwood Elementary School in Deadwood recently, the Lead-Deadwood School Board will follow a recommendation from schools superintendent Dr. Dan Leikvold to bring in a consulting firm to conduct a feasibility study on the school district’s facilities and how Lead-Deadwood Elementary School fits into that long-term picture.
Leikvold said that considering Principal Tim Kosters’ desire for a better educational environment for children, and building maintenance supervisor Wayne Karpinen’s desire for better building infrastructure, a long-term discussion regarding the facility needs to start.
“During the facilities tour of the Deadwood building, several issues and concerns regarding the building that is almost 95 years old arose,” Leikvold said. “Although, there isn’t a whole lot of consensus on what should be done. The way I see it, there are four options, and we need a whole lot more data, a whole lot more information, and will seek a lot more community input before moving forward on any of this.”
The four options presented were: one, continue with status quo.
“Looking at the infrastructure of the building in Deadwood, we could expand the classroom footprints, look at the cafeteria, there is $300,000 budgeted for this fiscal year and $400,000 for next in capital outlay, and this would not entail a complete overhaul,” Leikvold said.
Option two would entail committing to a significant overhaul of the building.
“This would entail a significant amount of money,” Leikvold said. “Millions of dollars.”
Option three would be to abandon the building and look for a new spot in Deadwood to build a new building.
Or option four, to enhance the footprint of the Lead campus and move the elementary school to Lead.
Leikvold then suggested the district hire a firm to conduct a study of the two campuses.
“There are companies that do this, that will come in and tell us what we need to do and what we need in terms of efficiencies,” Leikvold said.
“I think that sounds like a really good idea,” said Tera Mau, a school board member.
Leikvold suggested that the district interview a couple of firms and move forward with the selection process and hire from there.  

Enrollment numbers for the 2015-16 school year at Lead-Deadwood Elementary are 344 students.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Jill A. Pontius, DHS1957, age 76, of Deadwood, SD passed into heaven on Saturday, January 9, 2016 at her home.