As the years go on and the hallways of every Sioux Falls school get more and more crowded, the demand for a new high school gets more and more prominent.

Jefferson High School is the solution to that overcrowding; expected to open in the 2021-2022 school year, it will be the fourth main high school housed in the Sioux Falls School District.

But the implementation of JHS means that new district boundaries will have to be drawn, necessitating the redistribution of the students and teachers of LHS, RHS and WHS. Although current juniors and seniors will feel minimal effects, underclassmen and incoming students may feel the effects in either competition or location. A new high school means new teams and clubs to compete against for any student involved in extracurriculars, and new boundary lines may mean that students who expect to go to one of the existing high schools will have to attend JHS instead.

Sioux Falls Education Association president Tony Martinet also proposes a possible change of culture within the SFSD due to the introduction of a new player, which may change the already established positions each high school holds in the academic and extra-curricular hierarchies of the district. “Over time, Lincoln has cultivated the image of the academic school in the city,” said Martinet. “Not that the other two schools aren’t academically strong, but Lincoln has seemed to step just a little higher. What starts to happen if this new high school starts performing better? Or take whatever each high school might be known for and ask the same question. Also, as students are redistributed, what does that do to the talent pool for activities, sports and academics?”

But the true effect that JHS will have on the SFSD cannot be determined until the school is finally opened.

“There is not really a definitive answer about how this school will impact LHS or the rest of SFSD,” said Martinet. “The new building provides many great opportunities and challenges depending on how you want to look at it. To some people, the new buildings are a threat to ‘how things have always been done.’ By simply being built and opened, the school will force some things to change in the district and even community. To other people, the new building is a welcome disruption to the status quo and allows for possibilities that just may not occur to the other buildings because there is no tradition or prior practice to influence what they do, yet.”