Category Archives: State

Autumn Simunek of Hot Springs was crowned Miss South Dakota 2015 Saturday night.

She is the daughter of Kelly and Diane (Harter) Simunek, who grew up in Colome and now live in Hot Springs.

The new Miss South Dakota platform is “5 stars for serving those who served.” For her talent, Simunek performed the classic pop vocal “Hallelujah.” She is the second former Miss South  Dakota Outstanding Teen in a row to win the title of Miss South Dakota.

Simunek won the preliminary talent award Thursday night. She is a 22-year-old senior at the University of South Dakota. She also won the $1,000 Miss America Community Service award, top fundraiser award, state quality of life scholarship, Children’s Miracle Network maker award, as well as $10,000 from the Miss America organization for the Jean Bartel military awareness scholarship.

Simunek will represent South Dakota at the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, N. J., in September.

The South Dakota Retailers Association (SDRA) Board of Directors created a new scholarship honoring a past president of the organization recently at their annual board retreat.

Tom Morrison, a former SDRA board member from 2002-2009, serving as Board President in 2007, was general manager of the JC Penney store in Rapid City and passed earlier this month. “Tom was a firm believer in the Scholarship Program and the opportunities it creates for young people studying careers in retail,” said SDRA executive director Shawn Lyons.  o ignored

The scholarship, which will come from the overall Jerry Wheeler Scholarship program, will be an additional $500 annually for SDRA’s top scholarship recipient.

SDRA’s Jerry Wheeler Scholarship program is designed to encourage and support students studying for a career in retailing. Since 1992, SDRA has awarded 215 scholarships totaling over $137,900. The scholarship program is named in honor of former SDRA executive director, Jerry Wheeler, who started the program. To learn more about the Jerry Wheeler Scholarship program or the Tom Morrison Scholarship, please visit http://sdra.org and click on training and click on “Scholarship Program.”

BROOKINGS, S.D. – In response to the recent Avian Influenza outbreak, SDSU Extension launched a multi-state approach to providing research-based information and resources to families.

“By leveraging our resources and strategically sharing information with families throughout South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa we are able to provide daily updates and recommendations,” said Suzanne Stluka, SDSU Extension Food & Families Program Director of the cooperative project with Iowa State University Extension and University of Minnesota Extension

Together, extension staff from the three Land Grant Universities will provide families with information on everything from food safety education and stretching food dollars as the cost of eggs and poultry increases to implementing strategies to manage a family’s finances and stress during tough times.

“Avian Influenza has had a very real impact on families – while our SDSU Extension counterparts are working to address producer issues – this group will focus on the families struggling with the human challenges brought on by Avian Influenza,” Stluka explained. “Whether that is ensuring families are implementing the proper food safety techniques when preparing eggs and poultry, the loss of employment or dealing with seeing their food budget increase, as eggs, which are traditionally an inexpensive protein source, have more than doubled in price.”

PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Department of Transportation will be distributing $12.5 million in state highway funds to local governments by the end of June 2015. The funds will go to counties and cities with populations above 5,000, also known as Class 1 cities.

“This past legislative session, Gov. Daugaard not only led the effort to increase funding for state highways, but to lessen the restrictions on how local governments use highway funds,” Transportation Secretary Darin Bergquist said.

In previous years, the federal Surface Transportation Program (STP) funds that were allocated to each of the counties and Class 1 cities had many restrictions and could only be used on federal-aid eligible projects let to bid through the DOT. These restrictions resulted in several counties and cities accumulating their allocations for years until they were able to use the money on allowable projects.

The annual allocation is now being given to the local governments in the form of state highway funds that can be used on any road or bridge repair or maintenance.

Starting in September, the department will begin issuing checks to replace the accumulated STP balances with state highway funds.

For more information on the program, contact Doug Kinniburgh at 605-773-4284.

Since 2004, when the merit-based South Dakota Opportunity Scholarship was first awarded, observers have credited the scholarship with keeping students in college and completing a degree. Now there are new data to prove that point.

An analysis by the South Dakota Board of Regents looked at 2,652 students from South Dakota high schools who began a bachelor’s degree program in fall 2008 at one of the six state universities. Six years after initially enrolling, nearly nine in 10 students (88.5 percent) who received a South Dakota Opportunity Scholarship either had graduated or were still enrolled in a postsecondary institution.

For students who did not receive or did not qualify for the scholarship, only six in 10 students had similarly persisted.

By Warren Rusche, SDSU Extension cow/calf field specialist

Profit or loss in a cow/calf operation depends a great deal on the reproductive efficiency of the herd. For obvious reasons herds that have a high percentage of cows that settle early in the breeding season and deliver live calves are much more likely to be profitable.

Successful and profitable reproduction involves a number of key components. Factors such as pregnancy rates, calf death loss, and culling rates all play a role. Just as a chain is only as strong as the weak link, a problem in one area can undo exceptional results in another. The challenge is keeping track of the data and then using that information to drive management decisions.

Area students have been named to the spring semester dean’s list at Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell.

Named to the dean’s list are: Michael Rohde, Colome; Austin Calhoon, Lindsey Calhoon, Anthony Husher, Sara Husher and Tyler Vavra, all of Winner.

Rohde is a junior majoring in biology; Austin Calhoon is a junior majoring in mathematics education; Lindsey Calhoon, is a freshman.

Anthony Husher is a junior majoring in biology and Sara Husher is a freshman majoring in biology.

Vavra is a junior majoring in accounting.

Winner students have been named to the spring semester dean’s list at Black Hills State University.

Named to the list are: Bridget Aeschbacher, Lorrin Anderson, Ben Connot, Ethan Engel, Nathan Naasz, Samantha Patmore, Shayna Storms, all of Winner.

By Dana Hess

For S.D. Newspaper Association

PIERRE, S.D. — The South Dakota High School Activities Association’s transgender policy is going through more changes than Bruce Jenner.

At its June meeting, the association board of directors considered a revised policy designed to address concerns expressed during the last legislative session.

“We really kind of focused on what we heard from the Legislature,” said SDHSAA Executive Director Wayne Carney.

During the legislative session the association’s policy governing the eligibility of transgender students to take part in high school sports and activities was targeted by conservative lawmakers. Attempts to pass state laws superseding the association policy were unsuccessful.

The current policy allows students who self-identify as belonging to the opposite sex to compete with that sex if certain criteria are met.

SDHSAA legal counsel Lindsey Riter-Rapp said lawmakers questioned the credentials of the Gender Identification Eligibility Committee that would be used in the current policy. The committee is to include a physician familiar with gender identity health care, a mental health professional and an advocate familiar with gender identity issues and expression issues.

Some lawmakers believed “there may be some bias in their perspective,” Riter-Rapp said

In the revised policy, the eligibility committee has been replaced by an independent hearing officer. Carney said a former judge has agreed to serve in that capacity.

The revised policy states that once a school has forwarded the proper documentation about a transgender student’s request to compete, the hearing officer would review that information as well as communicate with experts, review laws, communicate with the Department of Education and the Office for Civil Rights and review other information.

The hearing officer’s decision would be passed on to the SDHSAA board of directors, which would make the final decision. Board members asked that the policy be changed to follow current eligibility proceedings with a decision by the executive director and the board hearing any appeal.

This was not the first choice of Carney who clearly didn’t want to have the final say on transgender matters

“This is very unique,” Carney said, “This is way out of my realm.”

During the discussion, board members also asked Riter-Rapp to include a more thorough explanation of the hearing officer’s qualifications.

Board member Sandy Klatt questioned the perception of bias on the part of the association if it was picking the hearing officer.

Carney said the SDHSAA staff hear comments about bias all the time, particularly in dealing with the selection of officials for state tournaments.

“We hear the bias card a lot,” Carney said. “Somebody has to name that person. It has to start somewhere.”

The activities association isn’t the only education group struggling with transgender issues. Wade Pogany, executive director of the Associated School Boards of South Dakota, told the board that his group will likely issue a position paper about how to work with schools on this issue.

“The issue comes down to privacy issues” like setting policies for the use of restrooms and locker rooms, Pogany said.

The SDHSAA policy addresses student eligibility and Pogany agreed that it would be best to let each individual school work on its own privacy issues.

“Let the schools decide how they’re going to make those accommodations,” Pogany said.

Throughout the discussion, SDHSAA board members expressed their frustration with the transgender policy

Board member Dan Whalen said he understood the need to have a policy since case law is trending toward giving transgender students a protected status.

“This legal ship has sailed,” Whalen said. “I just hope the name of the ship is not Titanic.”

Whalen said he was concerned about safety issues if a male student who identifies as a female were to compete against female students.

“It becomes a physical issue there,” Whalen said, noting that in football practice coaches are already advised not to line a 140-pound freshman up against a 225-pound senior. He said it would be dangerous for a 150-pound female to play against a 150-pound male.

The revised policy does mention that transgender students would not be allowed to compete if their participation would provide them with a competitive advantage.

Riter-Rapp said safety issues were discussed in the writing of the revised policy.

“It was very hard to come up with language that addressed that,” Riter-Rapp said. “It’s just hard to define.”

At one point, Klatt suggested scrapping the current policy and taking a look at the revised policy at the next meeting.

Noting the heat that the board has taken from the Legislature, Klatt said, “I think we need to get rid of what we have.”

Board member Todd Trask agreed: “I think we need to start over and get it right.”

Aberdeen Central Athletic Director Gene Brownell cautioned against getting rid of the current policy, saying that he knows there are transgender students enrolled in his school district and he needs a policy in place if any of them want to participate in sports.

“We may have to apply this policy in August,” Brownell said, “if they’re coming out for a sport in the fall.”

The current policy will remain in place and Riter-Rapp was directed to continue with her revisions of the new policy and present them at the board’s August meeting.

Anthony Husher of Winner was one of 11 Dakota Wesleyan University athletes named Daktronics-NAIA scholar athletes for the spring semester.

Husher was the recipient from the DWU men’s golf team.