By Brandon Ecoffey
Native Sun News Managing Editor RAPID CITY — Since being elected to the Rapid city school board in 2011 Laura Schad has established a reputation as being an advocate for not only Native students but all students. A member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Schad, is the Area 7 Representative on the Rapid City School Board who also works fulltime as the Program Information Coordinator for National Relief Charities. After growing up in South Dakota she bounced around the country before returning. When she moved back to South Dakota and wanted to work for a Native organization and started working at an Indian owned engineering firm and then applied at the Lakota Times and Rural Employment Initiatives. She ended up at REI where she worked for 10 years. “I actually applied to work at the Lakota Times but I was hired over the weekend by REI. Tim (Giago) called me on Monday and asked ‘who gets hired over the weekend’,” she said. She would find her way in to early childhood education. She fell in love with the work and has stayed in the early childhood field for the last twenty years. During that time she has had three kids come up in the same Rapid City school system that she now oversees. In 2011, Schad, was approached by her neighbor Laurette Pourier who gave her a call and asked her or her husband to run for the board. After consulting with friends involved in education she decided to run for the seat and ended up running unopposed in Area 7. She has many goals that she wants to accomplish as a school board member some of which include creating a feeling of belonging for those who participate in the school system. “I really want families and kids to be welcomed and be part of the school community. My kids were involved in all kinds of things and I want those options to not only be available but kids to be involved so they can find what they want to do,” she said. As someone who has had kids in the system and someone who has worked in Rapid City for years she also sees challenges that need to be addressed. “I think it is the time that it takes and we have had low graduation and high dropout rates in Rapid City for Native kids and it has been like that for a while,” she said. “There is a lot of programs but we need to network a lot better and get the information out to the families so they can access these resources easier...We are hoping to get some consistency so families can see the school as a resource and for some families that is hard.” During her time as school board member she has also attended several parent committees including the Indian Education Committee. The Indian-Ed Committee is a parent committee that provides insight in to how the Indian Education Department of the Rapid City School District spends its funds allocated through Title 7. Some of the successes of the committee have been finding ways to help kids have better access to the schools. The school system has partnered with Ateyapi, a Native American run program, and now provides transportation for kids in the summer to help increase the likelihood of students earning necessary credits towards graduation. “I go to the meeting at the Indian Ed Committee and I try to be resource for this parent committee,” said Schad. In addition to work outside of the classroom she also feels that there needs to be changes to the school curriculum that would benefit all students. “I want to get more local and regional history in to the classrooms. I think that both the Native and the non-Native know what happened in this area and this is actually really important to me.” Schad prides herself on being available to concerned parents and can be reached at (605) 393-9828 or laura.schad@k12.sd.us. (Contact Brandon Ecoffey at staffwriter2@nsweekly.com)
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