Look inside Sioux Falls’ new high school — and meet its leader

Jefferson High School Principal Dan Conrad knows what it’s like to start at a new school.

In fact, he knows what it’s like to start at a newly constructed high school in Sioux Falls. He was a member of Roosevelt High School’s first graduating class after transferring to the new building as a senior in the early 1990s.

So it’s not just talk when Conrad says he knows what the more than 1,400 students set to attend Sioux Falls’ newest high school are going through. And as those students ready themselves to start school in the coming weeks, he wants them to know what being a Jefferson Cavalier is all about.

“We want a place that’s built on inclusion where all means all,” Conrad said.

Conrad started his career with the Sioux Falls School District as a chemistry teacher at Lincoln High School in 1998, but his experience with the district dates back to his own elementary school days at Laura Wilder Elementary.

He grew up in Sioux Falls, attending Edison Middle School and Washington High School up until his senior year, when Roosevelt High School opened.

“It feels great just knowing that Dan’s been through it before,” said Tony Erickson, co-president of the Jefferson Booster Club. “He’s been through it as a student before, so I think that’s prepared him well to serve at the helm at Jefferson.”

After graduation, Conrad went on to study at Augustana University, where he played baseball and studied engineering and physics. It was about halfway through his college career, though, when he had what he calls an epiphany about his future.

“I wanted to go into education,” he said. “It lined up with some of the things I enjoyed doing. I enjoyed working with kids. I enjoyed working with people, and I enjoyed my content area.”

He began student teaching at his alma mater, Roosevelt, under some of the teachers who mentored him as a student before going on to work at Lincoln for 11 years both as a teacher and a coach of various sports, including baseball, football and basketball.

After working at Lincoln, Conrad moved to become an administrator at Washington High School, where he worked seven years as an assistant principal and four years as the head principal.

One of his driving forces as a leader is to imbue students with a sense of the importance of education as a way to open doors.

“We’re all searching for choice,” he said. “Well, what gives you choice? Education.”

His leadership style also involves a lot of listening, something that shows in any conversation, Erickson said.

“It doesn’t matter if he’s met somebody for the first time or has known that person for a long time,” Erickson said. “He takes the time to really engage in a meaningful conversation with each individual.”

Conrad accepted the job to serve as principal of Jefferson High School a few days before the COVID-19 pandemic hit South Dakota in March 2020. He didn’t get a proper goodbye to Washington because school quickly moved to online-only for the remainder of the school year.

“Closure is hard because in the moment you’re in the blur of the pandemic … but I think a lot of things in life as you move through, you kind of take the big picture and say, ‘It’s not about you, it’s about the people you serve,” Conrad said. “It was more about, how do we ensure the kids and the staff were able to bring some closure to the year?”

As schools across the district navigated education in the age of the coronavirus, Conrad spent the past year laying a foundation – metaphorically, though the literal foundation was being laid in tandem – for the culture and values he hopes the new school will embody.

“How do we want to tell our story?” Conrad said.

That process started with a look at the school’s namesake, President Thomas Jefferson, whose noteworthy accomplishments include writing the Declaration of Independence, completing the Louisiana Purchase and founding the University of Virginia, whose “Cavalier” mascot is also represented in the new Jefferson High School.

In line with Jefferson’s spirit of exploration with the Louisiana Purchase, the new high school values can be illustrated like points on a compass with four core values: service, inclusion, leadership and competition.

“It’s not about winning or losing,” he said. “It’s do I look at myself? Do I put the work and initiative in to make myself better? Do I make those around me better by taking my teammates with me, and do I have the belief that the work I’m doing is making a difference?”

Conrad said he also wants students, parents and the community at large to see Jefferson High School as open and trustworthy, characteristics he hopes extend to himself, also, especially as he navigates a new staff, a new building and the responsibility of creating a new community.

The hardest part, he said, is the fear that in all the changes and newness, something will slip through the cracks. He added he’s asking for grace from students, staff and parents if and when that happens.

He’s also asking for trust.

“We’re asking for their trust that when your child comes to us for those seven hours a day, that you trust the work that we’re doing is in the best interest of your child,” Conrad said. “At the end of the day, we’re here at Jefferson to serve the Sioux Falls community so that we can provide students, our future Sioux Falls citizens, opportunities.”