The Lennox School District 41-4 Board of Education held a special meeting on Tuesday, March 18, to address budget reductions for the 2025-2026 school year. The meeting, held in the Lennox Elementary Library and accessible via teleconference, drew strong public comments, particularly regarding proposed cuts to coaching positions and increased class sizes.
Board member Nick Butler was absent, and board member Melissa Daugherty arrived shortly after the meeting began.
During the public comment period, multiple community members voiced concerns over the potential impact of the cuts.
Cary Gerdes questioned the logic of reducing coaching positions and requiring tryouts for sports, particularly after investments in new facilities.
“It’s a bad look when you’re cutting students from using the new facilities that were built to provide them with opportunities,” she said. She also warned that limiting student participation could push families to enroll in other districts.
Longtime second-grade teacher Stacy Lund expressed concerns over proposed plans to reduce the number of third-grade classrooms for next year, citing both academic and behavioral challenges.
“I’ve taken pride in our small class sizes,” said Lund.
She said that the current second grade has about 19 students in each of the three sections, if this class is reduced to two sections next year it would create class sizes of 28 and 29 students. She also stated that several students in this grade are on behavioral IEPs.
“Third grade is a critical academic year, transitioning them from learning to read to reading to learn…increasing class sizes will put strain on both students and teachers,” she added. “We want what is best for our kids…we can not afford to sacrifice class size and comprise quality of education for these students.”
Brett Wynja echoed these concerns, emphasizing the difficulty of managing large class sizes effectively.
“I helped with Boy Scouts with ten kids, and I can’t imagine trying to teach a class of 28 kids,” he said. He believes the District needs to take some time and find creative ways to work around the budget deficit.
“Cutting teachers and cutting sports is taking the easy way out,” he added.
Resident, Amber Hoogestraat, was also present to share her concerns about the large class sizes proposed should third grade move to two sections next year.
Chad Reilly, a district parent, raised questions about the district’s financial planning. Reilly stated he reached out to board members when he noticed the district was operating on a budget shortfall and was disappointed to see the district reduce staff at the previous meeting. He criticized the District’s decision to cut positions like junior high math.
“I’m as pro-sports as anybody, but I brought my kids here to learn math and reading,” he said.
Following public comments, the board moved into executive session at 7:19 p.m. and reconvened at 8:01 p.m. to deliberate on the proposed budget cuts.
Several cost-saving measures were discussed, including:
• Eliminating Cognia accreditation ($7,000 savings)
• Eliminating Carroll Institute services due to funding reductions ($17,000 savings)
• Cutting board member pay ($7,540 savings)
• Administrative reductions in health insurance and stipends
• Adjusting a number of assistant coaching positions
Board President Scott Sandal identified declining enrollment and the number of homeschool students as a key issue impacting the district’s financial stability.
Business Manager Angela Arlt presented enrollment trends, noting an increase in homeschool numbers from 33 students in 2015 to over 100 in 2024. This year alone the District saw an additional 22 students choosing homeschooling, bringing the total number of homeschool students to 102 in the District.
This is not just a trend in the Lennox School District. According to the South Dakota Department of Education, there were 5,342 students participating in alternative instruction or homeschooling during the 2019-2020 school year. That number has increased to 11,489 students in 2024-2025.
“We need to investigate as to why this is happening — we have this enrollment downward trending issue, both open enrollments and homeschool, so that’s our root problem,” said Sandal.
LWC Intermediate Principal, Darin Eich said, “The State has made a change — in previous years when people homeschooled they had to take an assessment to have accountability,” he said. “But now they have made a change and there is not accountability…right now, they fill out a form online.”
Discussion continued on the proposed budget cuts with talks of transferring money from the capital outlay fund.
“We don’t want to get into the habit of using capital outlay to make our budget,” said Arlt.
Sandal stated that if enrollment increases next year the District could look at bringing things back.
“Hopefully in October when the numbers come in we are all pleasantly surprised,” said Sandal.
Audience member, Chad Reilly, asked during the meeting if the public could fund one of the items that was potentially being cut, noting that he would sponsor the pep band.
“The public can sponsor,” said Sandal.
He also stated that ideas can come from anywhere and encouraged people to share ideas with the administration team. He highlighted a suggestion regarding the girls’ basketball program: by eliminating one assistant coaching position, the district could have the 8th-grade basketball coach transition to the high school level after their season ends along with eighth grade players who are interested to help field a C-team.
After extensive discussion, a motion was made by board member Jennifer Slack, seconded by board member Renae Buehner to cut the 8th grade girls’ basketball coach and combine the position with the freshman girls’ basketball coach (a savings of $2,386.65), reduce one assistant track coach - moving from 5 to 4 (a savings of $5,358.60), to cut the academic bowl program (a savings of $1,960.46), to cut the junior high oral interpretation program (a savings of $1,022.85), to cut the fall strength coach position (a savings of $2,287.21) and spring strength coach position (a savings of $1,988.88), to remove pep band (a savings of $1,575.19), to not continue with the prevention services of Carroll Institute (a savings of $17,000), to eliminate Cognia accreditation (a savings of $7,000) and to eliminate school board member pay (a savings of $7,540).
The motion passed.
The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m. The board will reconvene on April 14 for further budget discussions.