RCAS looks at closing Canyon Lake Elementary School

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - The Rapid City Area Schools Board of Education is set to hold a final vote next month, weighing the possible permanent closure of Canyon Lake Elementary School.

If the school board votes to close the school during their meeting March 7, new boundaries will be drawn, and current students and staff will be re-assigned to one of a handful of other elementary schools in the city.

Back in 2016, Canyon Lake Elementary ranked the second lowest in a study rating the building conditions and educational sustainability of Rapid City schools.

In a news release from the school district’s community relations manager, the district said that it is “unfair to continue to educate children in conditions so unequal to other elementary schools within RCAS.”

Interim Superintendent Nicole Swigart insisted the decision will not be made lightly, saying “We cannot continue to put off facing the issues that have been around for over a decade within the district. RCAS has reached the point that facilities are failing, and closures have to happen. This is not how RCAS wanted to solve our building issues, but with the failing bond we now find the district in a lose-lose situation.”