Jefferson High School awards 1st school credits to Connections class for incoming freshmen

Tuesday marked the first day in history the new Jefferson High School in Sioux Falls awarded high school credits to students, as incoming freshmen completed summer Connections.

Connections is a 10-day, half-credit elective course those freshmen can take to become better acquainted with their new high school. The campus is opening this fall after voters passed a $190 million bond in 2018 to establish this school and Ben Reifel Middle School, along with other projects meant to help with overcrowding and building updates.

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The class provides connections with math, reading and writing skills, in addition to helping new high schoolers meet their peers and learn the school’s layout. Students learn “high school 101,” read the novel “Pop” by Gordon Korman and learn electronic organization in the course.

Sixty-five new Jefferson students finished the course Tuesday and celebrated their achievement with a small ceremony in the school’s new black box theater.

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A dozen upperclassmen peers who helped guide the freshmen through the course gave out awards to each of the new students, everything from “mysterious queen” awards, a “smart mouth” award or “super banana eater” for games and challenges they completed through the duration of Connections.

Freshman Keiry Diaz said she was “pretty excited” to meet new peers through Connections, and looks forward to joining the soccer team at Jefferson.

“It’s a relief because there’s going to be less people that I’m going to have to meet,” Diaz said of meeting her peers. “It taught me that I’m going to have to work with people that maybe think differently, or that I don’t know, but I’ll get used to it.”

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Fellow freshman Cameron Renken said he’s excited because there’s a “lot of opportunities” at the new school like the woodshop, labs and other extracurriculars. He said he looks forward to being part of more plays with the school's theater group.

Todd Novak, freshman academy coordinator for Jefferson, said he sees Connections as a “leadership camp” where incoming students learn how high school works.

“When you come into a new building, there’s a lot of anxiety and a lot of things you don’t know,” he said. “What they’re leaving with today is a sense of, ‘that first day of school is going to be just fine.’”

The first day of school for Jefferson High School is set for Aug. 26.