School Board Work Session 11-04-26

The Sioux Falls School District Board work session on November 4, 2026, focused on community partnerships and early-learning programs. Representatives discussed Great Life/Great Life Cares programs, including Play Everything, Character Matters, mentoring, and career and technical education activities. The district reported that mentoring serves more than 1,200 students and that Play Everything reaches over 4,000 students annually. Board members discussed expanding Character Matters into additional athletic, arts, after-school, and summer programs and evaluating the work in the spring. The presentation described financial support from Great Life as an investment, but no dollar amounts, contracts, purchase approvals, or procurement actions were identified.

The board also reviewed plans to expand junior kindergarten and shift from an academy model toward a neighborhood-based model to help students develop readiness skills before kindergarten. Staff discussed identifying student needs, posting teacher positions, and providing training; no staffing or spending approvals were recorded. No procurement activity was identified during the work session.