THE STATE OF FREEMAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Considerable growth in enrollment, an expanded curriculum,
ongoing attention to the physical plant and a strong financial position
has Freeman School District 33-1 well-positioned for the future
JEREMY WALTNER
– PUBLISHER
Compared to the rest of the sprawling campus, it’s a relatively modest addition — a 2,000 square foot structure being built west of the original junior-senior high school building that opened 50 years ago. There’s nothing fancy about the maintenance shed that will serve as home to the custodial staff, but it is significant in what it represents — across-the-board growth at Freeman Public Schools.
That has been the reality for District 33-1 going back to the start of the Jake Tietje era, which began with the Minnesota native’s hiring in the summer of 2021 and has continued in the years since. There has been growth in the physical plant, staff development, curriculum, financial security and — notably — enrollment, all of which has Freeman Public Schools set up for a strong future.
“We sit in a really good spot,” said Angele Letcher, who is in her first full year as the district’s business manager. “A lot of it is the numbers of students we have; that obviously helps. There are schools in the surrounding area who don’t have those enrollment numbers, and therefore they’re not getting that level of state aid.”
According to Letcher, Freeman Public is receiving $5,195.20 per student in state aid. This year’s official enrollment submitted to the state in September was 428.23, which is up from the 2023-24 enrollment of 421.49 and up considerably from the enrollment of just four years ago, which was 337.45 at the start of the 2020-21 term.
Freeman Public also benefits from a large tax base that extends beyond Hutchinson County and into Turner and McCook counties — an advantage the district has that can be traced back to re-organization of the 1960s and the effort to broaden district boundaries by then-superintendent Alvin Mudder.
“We have good valuation there,” says Letcher, “so we get quite a bit of revenue from that.”
Freeman Public is also drawing $250,000 annually from a forever opt-out passed in 2001, and also has access to an additional $600,000 from a second opt-out approved by voters in 2017, although the district has not been tapping that.
The $600,000 opt-out is set to expire in fiscal year 2028, Letcher said.
And there’s more good financial news. Freeman Public’s long-term debt to help pay for the elementary school construction of 2008-09 is nearly paid off. Capital outlay bond certificates held by Merchants State Bank were paid off in fiscal year 2024 and bond certificates held by First National Bank of Wyoming are being paid off this fiscal year.
Letcher says that frees up $180,000 in capital outlay funds, and the final bond payment for with US Bank for the construction of Freeman Elementary will be made in fiscal year 2028.
As far as cash on hand, Freeman Public is sitting at $2.5 million in its capital outlay fund and has another $600,000 in a CD, with the second half of the 2024 tax valuation still to come in this school term.
As for the general fund, which is used primarily to pay for salaries as opposed to physical improvements, Freeman Public’s financial statement ending December of 2024 showed a balance of $1,362,949.19.
Even the lunch fund, which typically runs in the red, is healthy.
Early momentum
For Tietje, his introduction to the Freeman Public School District — and his first-time superintendent gig — included some challenges early.
The first came in December of 2021, when the new superintendent was still in his first semester as the district’s top administrator and the Canistota School Board abruptly pulled the plug on its football cooperative with Freeman Public. That set into motion the development of a task force to look at athletic cooperation with neighboring districts that ultimately resulted in the establishment of a new football partnership between Freeman Public, Freeman Academy and Marion; the Phoenix debuted in the fall of 2022 and posted winning records — and playoff victories — in each of their first three seasons. This past fall, Freeman/Marion/Freeman Academy came one touchdown away from playing for the Class 9AA state championship and is expected to be a favorite in 2025.
The second challenge facing the district in Tietje’s first year here was getting a new wrestling room and multi-use facility built in what was green space sandwiched east of the elementary school gym and west of the bus lane. The seed for that project was actually planted in February of 2021, when the district was still led by superintendent Kevin Kunz and the board heard a pitch from then head wrestling coach Chris Sayler to establish a new home for the Marion/Freeman wrestling program. The board went so far as to hire CO-OP Architecture in the spring of 2021 to put together a plan for the wrestling room, but changed course in July and tabled the project.
Eight months later, in March of 2022, a reimagined plan was approved by the board when it accepted a base bid for the project in the amount of just under $1.1 million from Puetz Design+Build to engineer the construction.
The 3,800 square-foot facility — named The Hangar and accessible through both the elementary school gym and the exterior — was ready for use in November of 2022.
The other building project taken on during Tietje’s time here is that maintenance shed still under construction — a $450,000 project being paid for using existing capital outlay funds and approved by the board last year. Ground was broken on Oct. 23 and completion is scheduled for March.
The construction project is necessary largely because space that had been used for maintenance storage is no longer available because of a significant expansion of the district’s CTE curriculum made possible by a $301,000 grant awarded Freeman Public through the South Dakota Department of Education this past June.
The grant has been used to fund, not only the equipment used by first-year CTE curriculum instructor Keith Andersen, but also the installation of a commercial kitchen used as part of the food science class led by vocational-ag instructor Malynda Penner.
What’s next?
While the physical plant is largely sound, there are projects — and challenges — that will need to be addressed soon.
Some of it is cosmetic; the junior-senior high school interior needs a painting overhaul that will start with the repair of some cracking and chipping in the walls. Tietje says that project will also include new paint inside the district’s main gym, including a new mural to replace the outdated fighter planes that don the north wall and are original to the construction of the gym in 1992.
Given the scope of the painting project, it won’t be cheap.
School officials also need to reconcile what to do with the concrete stadium that has been in use at the football field and track complex the past 45 years. Cracking and broken concrete has plagued the district for years, and Tietje said the board will need to decide whether to proceed with a major repair that would include a new base and decking, or the demolition of the structure and the installation of a new set of aluminum bleachers.
“It’s a safety concern we can’t have,” he said, noting that the district does not yet have a quote on either option.
Tietje said the track itself is also causing some concern. Age on the subsurface layer, installed as part of the district’s track and football field renovation of 1999, is causing cracking on the top layer. Like the stadium project, he said, the board will have to decide whether to pursue a Band-Aid approach or fix the problem from the ground up.
While the stadium and track should get Freeman Public through the upcoming spring track season, decisions will have to be made this summer.
“We have some choices we’re going to have to make,” Tietje said. “It all depends on the almighty dollar; we want to make sure we’re continuing to make the best financial decisions for the district.”
Bright future
All of this has Freeman Public in a strong position going forward. While the spike in enrollment growth has leveled off some — this year’s kindergarten class is the lowest it has been in recent years due in part to a new junior kindergarten program — projections are still strong.
Based on an average growth of 5.28%, the district is projecting an enrollment of 517.81 by the start of the 2027-28 school year. That’s up another 90 students from this year’s official count of 428.
The district is also nurturing a first-year preschool/pre-K program it has capped at 20 students. This year there are eight students in the tuition-based preschool program and 12 in junior kindergarten, which is included as part of the district’s official enrollment count and therefore eligible for state aid.
Elsewhere in the building, the district is accommodating larger class sizes as best it can through split sections. Next year’s fourth, fifth and sixth grade classes are all expected to be in the low 30s, and at the junior-senior high school level, many of the core curriculum classes are split into multiple sections. That, plus the addition of more electives like the expanded CTE program and a part-time business teacher, makes for a robust curriculum.
Other steps forward have included a new farm-to-table lunch program that will utilize locally produced protein and a “Success Center” in the library that includes couches and charging stations for students taking dual credits to utilize during downtime.
“It really has a relaxed feel,” Tietje says. “We want our students to feel comfortable here and have fun while they’re here. It’s those little things that go a long way.”
Tietje calls it all “comfortable growth.”
“In the last four years, it’s amazing the things we’ve been able to accomplish,” he says. “It’s been a learning process and I feel like we’re in a good spot as a district.”
And he credits the school board for its forward-thinking approach.
“I think that’s what’s so enjoyable about this district,” Tietje says. “We have a board that is very progressive minded in keeping the facilities where they need to be and, academically, always striving to improve in those areas.”
This is the first in an ongoing “State of” series taking a look at the school districts in Freeman, Marion and Menno, as well as the municipalities of Freeman and Menno.
