Original Research by School Decision on Howard High School - 01
Howard High School sits in the heart of Howard, the small county seat of Miner County in southeastern South Dakota. It is the only public high school serving the Howard School District 48-3, a district that stretches across most of Miner County and reaches into portions of McCook, Hanson, and Kingsbury counties. The school serves grades nine through twelve and draws from a community that has shaped its identity around renewable energy, organic agriculture, and rural revitalization.
The town of Howard is compact, with a traditional street grid centered on Main Street, where the county courthouse, municipal building, and local businesses form the civic core. The school itself is woven into this fabric rather than sitting on a distant campus, and the elementary, junior high, and high school all sit within the town. Howard sits on Highway 34, within about an hour's drive of Sioux Falls, Brookings, Mitchell, and Huron, and close to Madison. The town has experienced long-term population decline, but publicly reported efforts over recent decades have slowed that trend. A grassroots "Buy Local" campaign, a decade-long partnership with the Northwest Area Foundation, and the city's pioneering ownership of wind turbines have all contributed to modest job growth and rising sales tax revenues. Housing stock is limited, with no major new developments identified, so families moving in may find a tight local market.
The high school is small, with roughly equal numbers across each grade level. Its student body is nearly entirely white, with a very small number of Hispanic students and no students identified in other racial or ethnic categories. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is quite low compared with typical public schools, which sets this school apart from many rural South Dakota peers where economic need runs higher. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not reported, so it is not possible to characterize those populations here. A parent with specific questions about special education services or language support would want to ask the district directly.
Academic performance data was not available in the materials provided. State assessment results, multi-year trends, and any standardized academic context were all missing, so there is no basis here to describe how students are performing on state tests or how that performance has changed over time. Graduation rate data was also not provided. For a school serving only high school grades, these are central measures, and their absence means the academic picture is incomplete. Course access information, including any AP, dual-credit, or career and technical education offerings, was not available either. The same goes for staffing, attendance, and discipline data. None of these gaps should be read as a weakness in the school; they reflect what was and was not available to assemble. A family evaluating Howard High would do well to request current assessment results, graduation rates, and program catalogs from the district office.
What the available picture does show is a very small, homogeneous rural high school in a town that has worked hard to reverse decline and build a local economy around clean energy and agriculture. The school benefits from being embedded in a close-knit community where civic and educational life share the same few blocks. Class sizes are naturally small, which can mean more individual attention, though the trade-off is a narrower range of courses and activities than a larger high school can sustain. For families who value a rural setting, strong community ties, and a school where nearly every face is familiar, Howard High fits that profile. For those seeking broad program variety or measurable academic benchmarks in the public record, the available data does not yet provide that picture.
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