Original Research by School Decision on Hillside Colony High School - 07
Hillside Colony High School - 07 sits on Hillside Lane outside Doland, a tiny rural community in Spink County, South Dakota. The school serves grades nine through twelve and is part of the Doland School District 56-2, a small rural system that also operates Doland Elementary, Doland Junior High, Doland High School, and a K-8 Hillside Colony School. The name and location point to this being a colony-affiliated school serving a Hutterite community, which is common in this part of the state.
Almost every data field a parent would normally rely on is empty here. The reported enrollment across all four grades is zero, and the racial and ethnic breakdown reflects the same. Free-or-reduced-price lunch counts, individualized education program rates, and English learner figures are all missing. No state assessment results were available, and no multi-year academic trends could be computed. There is no graduation rate, no course access data, no staffing information, no attendance record, and no civil rights reporting. A neighbor comparison was not provided. In a school this small and specialized, these gaps are not unusual. Colony schools often sit outside the standard testing and reporting framework, and a high school serving a colony community may simply have no students enrolled at the high school level in a given year, or may report through alternative channels. A parent looking into this school would need to contact the Doland School District directly for any current enrollment or academic information.
The broader community context does give a reader something to work with. Doland is a very small town, platted originally as a railroad depot stop along the Chicago and North Western line for shipping farm products. The town motto is "Home of Heroes," a nod to figures raised there including Vice President Hubert Humphrey. The business district is modest but active, with churches and basic commercial services serving the surrounding agricultural area. Most residents commute meaningful distances to work, and the town is thoroughly car-dependent. Civic infrastructure is minimal; for library services or other civic amenities, residents typically travel to Redfield, the Spink County seat.
Doland has been experiencing long-term population decline, a trajectory common to many small Great Plains communities. No major new housing developments or growth initiatives surfaced in publicly reported sources. The housing market, however, tells a story of relative affordability. Home values in the school's zip code sit well below both the South Dakota and national benchmarks, and the price-to-income ratio is low, meaning a modest income goes further here than in most of the country. Rental data was not available. For a family already connected to colony life or drawn to rural agricultural South Dakota, the cost of living is among the region's lower options.
What the data does not tell you is most of what matters for a placement decision. There is no picture of classroom instruction, no evidence of curriculum or program offerings, no sense of peer environment, and no record of outcomes. The Doland School District brief turned up little of lasting impact in recent district-level changes, which is consistent with a very small rural system. A parent considering Hillside Colony High School should treat this as an entry point requiring direct conversation with the district rather than a self-contained profile. The school is open, it serves a specific community, and the surrounding area is quiet, affordable, and deeply rural. Beyond that, the record here is too thin to support a judgment, and saying so plainly serves a reader better than filling in what the data leaves blank.
See more original research from School Decision →