New Hutterite colony means new school in Edmunds County

There will be eight new students joining the ranks of the Edmunds Central School District beginning in the fall.

The new students are a 5 percent increase in enrollment for the small district, but that’s not why they’re special. The students are moving into the Edmunds Central district from the Grasslands Hutterite Colony in the Leola School District.

The Grasslands Colony is starting a new colony in the Hosmer area and is beginning the process of getting people moved, said Paul Wollman, the colony’s assistant minister.

Wollman will be head of the new Boulder Colony.

Old building, new life

Part of that move will be a new school, in the old nursing home building in Hosmer; the colony has rented the building and is currently in the renovation process, Wollman said. There will be living quarters and a school in that building.

Edmunds Central is advertising for a teacher to cover the colony school, the first of its kind for the district, Superintendent Shawn Yates said.

There are several public schools on or near Hutterite colonies in South Dakota — more than 60 throughout the state serving more than 1,300 students, according to data from the state Department of Education.

The students in Hosmer will range from first through eighth grade and will have the same teacher, Yates said. The teacher will likely be someone with an elementary education background.

“The needs are different when you’re dealing with kindergarten, first grade,” Yates said.

If the colony teacher does need help or advice for the older students, there’s a building full of teachers in Roscoe they can consult with, Yates said.

There was a school in Hosmer that was part of the Edmunds Central District that closed at the turn of the century, Yates said, so having an outpost in the town of about 200 isn’t anything new for the district.

Time with students

Teachers at a colony school spend more time with students — several school years versus one at a conventional school — and they have a different way of teaching several grades at once.

“We take good care of them,” Wollman said of teachers. “We like them to have a good attitude and we like them to have standards of what we practice.”

While no one’s moved yet — that won’t happen until after the school year — Grassland Colony knows who will be moving to Boulder. It’s planned ahead of time, Wollman said.

“It takes an electrician. It takes a plumber. It takes a carpenter,” Wollman said. “We appoint people that are good in that field. Whatever needs to be done there, they move there.”

Colonies have a population of around 150 or so, and when the population begins to exceed that, a decision can be made to start a new colony, Wollman said.

“With the new place comes a new school,” Wollman said.

Teaching German

Not only will the new school house a public school teacher, it will house a German teacher, too, Wollman said. Hutterite students take additional classes in their first language, German, and learn English as a second language from the public school teachers.

“We have to go to town to do our doctor stuff and dentist and shop and all the necessities of life,” Wollman said.

Follow @kgrandstrandAANon Twitter.