NEWS :: Red Cloud Indian School

Red Cloud Indian School receives largest grant in organization’s history, students to benefit from enhanced after-school and summer programming
posted on April 10, 2010

The students of Red Cloud Indian School will be the beneficiaries of a five-year, $750,000 grant from the Department of Education that will go toward funding the reservation school’s comprehensive after-school and summer program. The 21st Century Community Learning Centers Grant is the largest award to be given to Red Cloud in the institution’s 120-year history.

The federal grant award was announced by M. Michael Rounds, governor of South Dakota, last month. Funds will be distributed over a five-year period as Red Cloud realizes program goals and successes.

“We are very grateful to the Department of Education for recognizing in our students, teachers and families the important work that after-school and summer programs offer the Lakota students we educate each year,” says Robert Brave Heart Sr., superintendent of schools. “The co-curricular programs at Red Cloud play an instrumental role in ensuring that each student who leaves our doors at graduation is poised for a successful, meaningful life.”

Brave Heart says that without programs like the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Grant, Red Cloud wouldn’t be able to have the educational programming that it offers outside typical class hours.

Wakanyeja Kin Wokiye Owicakiyapi (Helping the Children Succeed) will play a critical role over the next five years, offering 600 Lakota students and their families with the additional tools and resources they need to succeed both in- and out-of-the-classroom. With this grant, Red Cloud will grow it’s current program to include weekend educational and recreational field trips, expand summer school programming both at Red Cloud and at residential camps around the Black Hills region and continue to offer a number of Family Activity Nights to draw students and parents closer to the school.

Last year, after-school programs averaged about 100 students each night in kindergarten-12th grade, with increases in attendance each month.

In addition to special programming, structured time is allotted to complete homework, seek extra help from teachers and peers and for physical exercise. Both students who are struggling academically and students who are advanced learners participate in the program. More than 20 clubs are offered, from community service and chess to Lakota handgames, singing and drumming. Students drive club activities, oftentimes making suggestions on new clubs they’d like to form and playing key leadership roles in a club’s creation.

“One popular club is our Accelerated Reader Club at Our Lady of Lourdes Elementary in Porcupine,” says TJ Lynch, director of Red Cloud’s after-school program. “With an enrollment of more than 35 students every Tuesday, the program challenges students of all abilities to stretch their individual capabilities, talking about what life lessons they’ve learned by reading their books and finding new books in the library that are of interest to them.”

Red Cloud received its first 21st Century Grant in 2004, which empowered the institution to realize a number of major academic and social improvements at the school. For instance, since 2005 there has been a 60 percent increase in the number of graduates at Red Cloud who have moved on to college—a direct reflection of the growing desire among families on the reservation to send their children to Red Cloud because the school and its supplemental programming is viewed as a key influencer in helping young people plan for a future in higher education.

When the after-school and summer program was not funded in 2009, the school persevered—finding creative ways to pull resources together for students, with teachers volunteering to stay beyond typical working hours to ensure students received the education they both need and deserve.

“The altruism of the Red Cloud staff is what kept the after-school program thriving last year, which ultimately also contributed to the success of our grant application this year,” says Lynch.

“The myriad of activities sponsored through this program will help continue to increase student academic achievement, attendance and retention rates,” says Brave Heart. “And it enhances leadership abilities and confidence for both students and their families.”

That, adds Lynch, is something sometimes overlooked when understanding the total benefit of a comprehensive after-school program.

“In the pursuit to educate youth, we oftentimes forget about the trickle-down effect on our Red Cloud parents. We are certain that the primary key to unlocking students’ academic and personal potential is to see their parents embracing education. Parents also need opportunities and training in order to attain skills that will help them succeed in educating their children. Red Cloud parents are becoming more educated and holding long-term, full-time employment. They are understanding that education—that improving their own lives and more importantly, the lives of their extended family, is crucial.”

Red Cloud supports parents by offering the after-school program for students five nights a week, two hours a night, which allows parents to work and take college classes with the comfort of knowing their children are being cared for in a safe environment. The school also offers parents workshops, print materials and consulting through the South Dakota Parent and Information Resource Center, and hosts Parents Nights throughout the year to foster a sense of connectedness between the family and the school. Each year, select parents are sent to the Lakota Nations Education Conference in Rapid City as well.

While the end of the academic year has come at Red Cloud, the school will offer many programs this summer to students, including the Super Science Camp through the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. The program offers Red Cloud students in grades 5-12 courses in science and engineering at the college. Not only do the student receive training in areas that are in-demand, but they also live off the reservation for a period of time, allowing them to experience what college life will be like after high school graduation.

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