Lakota Tech construction moves forward

PINE RIDGE – Construction at Lakota Tech High School is making immense progress as the inside of the building is begging to take shape.

The commons space, legends room, library, administrative offices, concession stands, and gym are seen immediately through the front door.

Among the rooms that are nearly complete is the media room which will teach students about professions within the media sector. The room will host a green screen, and the ability to produce radio programs. Dr. Anthony Fairbanks, Oglala Lakota County School District superintendent, says the school will be able to produce its own radio shows in the media room to be broadcast on KILI radio.

The hallway and classrooms in the freshman wing of the school are nearly complete with lighting and flooring tile.

The restaurant management classroom in the freshman wing has cabinets installed and will soon have kitchen equipment. “We have already ordered industrial grade mixers and blenders,” said Stephanie Eisenmenger, Lakota Tech principal. “Eventually, I would like to build on to the restaurant management room and make it an actual restaurant set up so it is as if the students were really managing their own restaurant.”

The career and technical education (CTE) wing of the building is not as far along as the freshman wing, but still hosts an impressive display of what will be accomplished.

A shop room is the most distinguishable part on the CTE wing right now with high, vaulted ceilings and plenty of room to move around. Students will be learning electrical hookups, dry walling, and carpentry among other skills in the shop room.

The shop room and other rooms on the ends of each wing have the capability to have their walls removed in order to build onto the wing and add extra classrooms.

“When we designed this building we wanted to make sure that we could extend out and add more classrooms,” said Fairbanks. “So there is enough room to just add classrooms when our enrollment increases. Right now our max is 400 but we can continue to fit the enrollment numbers as we grow.”

“There is even a room that is built for a completely other hallway to jettison off of it to create a whole new wing,” added Eisenmenger.

The Wolf Creek School, which is adjacent to Lakota Tech, is built in the same fashion and recently added 18 new classrooms.

The gymnasium has its balcony, weight room, and wrestling room installed. After Lakota Tech is in full swing, the gym will be able to host 1,800 people. The balcony will have retractable bleachers and will offer more space for activities when the bleachers are not needed for sporting events.

“One thing I have learned with high schools is that you have to plan out your gym time really well, but this balcony gives us another option to take care of our students,” said Fairbanks. “We have a golf team and they can do a virtual simulations up here, and we can also have indoor lacrosse and archery.”

Another project for Lakota Tech in the future is a sports complex.

“Our next project is an athletic stadium with an all-purpose field where we can play lacrosse, soccer, track and football with other types of outdoor events,” said Fairbanks. “It will be a big stadium with lights, bleachers, and it will have artificial turf.”

Lakota Tech also hopes to have an on-site daycare for their students that are also parents. “We don’t want anyone to have to drop out because of life circumstances,” said Eisenmenger.

A concern for prospective students is if there will be available busing to and from school.

“We will go right to your door,” said Fairbanks. “Right now we travel 6,500 miles back and forth from homes per day to transport students… so what’s another 2,000 miles? We can do it.”

In all, Fairbanks said “we hope to have everything running as smooth as possible, and to just have a lot of fun academically and in extracurricular activities. Supporting that whole person as a student and supporting their Lakota identity.

Lakota Tech is set to open for the fall term in August of 2020, and has been enrolling students since January of this year. The school is a Career and Technical Education (CTE) high school, meaning that students not only learn academic knowledge but also technical skills and professional abilities.

Recent research shows that graduation rates for students enrolled in a CTE concentrated program is 93%. High school graduates from CTE programs will see a 9.2% increase of employability over their non-CTE peers. And students taking a CTE course for every two academic courses also minimizes the risk of dropping out exponentially.

(Contact Travis at travisldewes@gmail.com)

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