School board recognizes students for academic achievement

The Tea Area School Board recognized two students at its Jan. 12 board meeting.

Superintendent Tonia Warzecha recognized Jackson Bender and Dawson Ballman for their perfect scores on the spring 2025 math and science assessment. Bender had a perfect score on SD Science Assessment during the Spring 2025 administration and Ballman had a perfect score on SD Math Assessment during the Spring 2025 administration. One more student will be recognized at the February board meeting.

The board approved the resignations of Ericka Ackmann for competitive cheer, Sergio Banuelos for high school assistant boys soccer effective Dec. 31, 2025, Lexi Hanson for high school math effective end of year, Alyssa Pfeifle as physical therapist effective end of year and the retirement of David Sieler June 30.

They also approved the new hires of Adam Aesoph for transportation, Mya Haupt as Venture administrative assistant, Kyle Hollingshead as custodian and Jesse Wipf for foodservice.

The board set the board of education election for June 2.

Special education director Jody Taylor reported on the December 1 child count that will be verified in February by the state. She reported they went down four students from the previous year with 388 students on IEPs in the district. They saw the biggest growth in special education numbers at Frontier Elementary and the middle school.

Curriculum director Samantha Walder presented information on the English language learner program in the district. Of the current enrollment, 3.7 percent of the student population, or 80 students, is in the English learner program. Frontier Elementary has the highest level of English learner students. There are 13 languages and multiple dialects within those languages spoken in the district.

Since Feb. 9 is Stand with Public Schools Day in Pierre, they moved the board meeting to Feb. 16.

The board went into executive session at 6:21 p.m.