Earlier this school year, the Sioux Falls school district announced a strategic plan to increase the diversity among teaching staff to better reflect its students.

Get this: While white students make up just under two-thirds of the roughly 20,000 students, 98 percent of the teachers are white. The district hopes that over the course of the next five years, it will be able to increase the two percent of teachers of color to five. That means hiring over 80 new staff members, more than doubling the numbers. As a part of this goal, a new initiative was launched called “Grow Your Own,” which aims to mentor students of color who aspire to be teachers and to encourage them to stay in the state. Mónica Conover, a Spanish teacher at LHS, hails from Mexico and feels there is a reason for this disparity.

“It’s Sioux Falls,” said Conover. “It’s not like Texas, where the minority of people is white. I feel like the diversity is coming; we just don’t live here.”

Conover had no clue that South Dakota existed until she had an incentive, an important part in attracting people of all colors.

“My family didn’t know what South Dakota is,” said Conover. “The people of Mexico and other countries are thinking to go to the big cities. I’m here because of love, because my husband is from here.”

Coming from a different background, Conover had some struggle adapting to the educational system here. However, she has found a home at LHS.

“I have very great friends here,” said Conover. “I have fun with my coworkers. If I am the only Latina, I still have the German and Belgian teachers and we can all understand each other.”