By Dana Hess
For the S.D. Newspaper Association
A year ago the South Dakota High School Activities Association was struggling to keep its corporate sponsors from defecting to the SDHSAA Foundation. At Thursday’s meeting, the SDHSAA Board of Directors approved a full slate of corporate sponsors for the new school year.
Corporate sponsors and their yearly donations include: • Lead partner, Sanford Health, $125,000 • Financial services partner, Dakotah Bank, $75,000 • Community partner, Farmer’s Union Insurance, $62,500 • Military partner, S.D. Army National Guard, $50,000
Billion Automotive makes an in-kind donation of vehicles for use by SDHSAA staff.
Dakotah Bank replaces First Premier Bank and Premier Bankcard as the financial services partner. First Premiere expressed an interest in making its contribution to the SDHSAA Foundation.
Funds from corporate sponsors are used to buy catastrophic insurance for school districts.
“That covers every high school student in the state,” said SDHSAA Executive Director Daniel Swartos.
Thursday the board also received an update from Pierre Superintendent Kelly Glodt representing the SDHSAA Foundation. Glodt reported that the foundation has $388,504 on hand and $10,331 available for disbursement. The foundation’s plan is to make significant contributions to South Dakota school districts.
“Our goal is to build those dollars,” Glodt said, “to where we have some substantial dollars for the future.”
SDHSAA Board Chairman Brian Maher of Sioux Falls suggested that it might be best to re-invest the money available for disbursement in order to help the principal grow.
Maher said that $10,000 “spread across our state isn’t really that much money.”
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