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IPSWICH, S.D. (AP) — Classrooms in the Ipswich School District's three Hutterite colony schools are similar to elementary and middle-school classrooms in other public schools.
Walls are adorned with educational posters. Desks are lined up in rows. Nooks are turned into small classroom libraries.
The attire of the kids at school is different than that of their counterparts in town. The boys are in plaid shirts, suspenders and black jeans or trousers. The girls wear colorful, floor-length dresses with fun prints and have their hair covered with bonnets. Because English is a second language, they have a distinctive German accent.
Some aspects of colony life are steeped in tradition from generations past, but that's not true of the classrooms. There are laptops, iPads and Smart Boards. Students read newer, young adult books. In addition to customary attire, the kids don hoodies and sneakers.
Lessons at the colony schools are the same ones taught with the same curriculum as at the main school in Ipswich, said Bobbie Kilber, colony schools principal for the Ipswich district.
"Some people, I think, have a misconception that we don't go to the same standards, but we do," Kilber told The American News (http://bit.ly/1NLEs4f ). "We're all following the Common Core state standards."
Ipswich provides teachers for three Hutterite colonies — Pembrook, Deerfield and Plainview. Each school has at least two teachers, one for kindergarten through third grade and one for fourth through eighth grade. Charlene Blondo comes out to the colonies regularly to teach music. Each school is staffed differently with paraprofessionals or special education teachers.
Throughout the state, there are more than 60 Hutterite colony schools run by public school districts, according to data from the South Dakota Department of Education. Last year, more than 1,300 students were served by such schools.
While there are Hutterite colonies throughout the U.S. and Canada, Ann Larsen, director of the division of educational services and support of the state Department of Education, said she didn't know of any similar arrangements in other states.
One of the biggest challenges teachers face initially is the language barrier. Until they enter school — which can be preschool or kindergarten, depending on the colony — colony students only speak German, Kilber said. They begin public school, commonly referred to by colony residents as English school, at age 5 or 6, just like students outside the colony. But they also have German school, which is before and after the regular 8:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. school day.
By the time they've finished school, Hutterite students are trilingual, Kilber said. They speak low, or conversational, German from birth. In school they learn English from the public school teachers and high German from their German school teachers. The Bible and sacred texts are written in high German.
There are 20 to 30 students in each colony school in the Ipswich district, Kilber said. Some grades have several students, and sometimes there's a lone student in a grade. The day is divided by subjects like many elementary school classrooms, but teachers will break the classroom into even smaller groups based on grade, sometimes combining grades for lessons.
One day last week, seventh- and eighth-graders in the Pembrook Colony school were discussing "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey with Kilber, while other students were working with their regular teacher, Janice Perrion.
In the younger classroom, students not working with teacher Kayla Wilson were left to their own devices to work on projects or read books with the type of mild chaos expected of youngsters — not mischief, but not pure order, either.
Within the Hutterite colonies, buildings are on a single plat of land — the homes, businesses, base operations for farms, and the schools. Children don't move. Teachers know exactly who will be in the classroom from the first day of school to the last, and the only new students are kindergarteners, Kilber said.
There will be some students leaving the Deerfield Colony school, as it is splitting to form a new colony in North Dakota, Kilber said, but instances like that are rare.
The school year at the colonies is the same as at the main school, though there are a few extra religious holidays, Kilber said. If there are snow days, the colony schools take the day off, even though all the students live within walking distance of the school. The closure is mostly for the safety of the teachers who do not live at the colony and continuity with the rest of the district.
Most Hutterite schools go through eighth grade, which is allowed through a 1990 state law. Depending on the colony, some students continue to high school, Kilber said. The Deerfield Colony is one such school. Students attend high school through an online program developed by the Chester School District.
English school has been at the colonies for decades, but not always through local public schools. Perrion's first job after graduating from Northern State University was at a colony school, and she's never taught in a traditional public school.
"I had other job offers, too, but it just sounded intriguing to me," Perrion said.
In 1997, the state school funding formula changed to a per-student amount, wrote Mary Stadick Smith, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education. The change gave districts an incentive to serve more students. And by partnering with public school systems, colony schools had access to trained, certified teachers. The mid- to late-1990s saw a rise in these type of arrangements.
"I think it's a good partnership," Stadick Smith said.
The teachers at the colony schools seem to love their jobs. Sarah Sanborn teaches the lower grades at the Deerfield Colony; her mother, Joy Kehrwald, teaches special education. Kehrwald's mother was also a teacher at a colony school. The family connection spreads to the students as well. Sanborn is teaching the grandchildren of her grandmother's students, and Kehrwald taught the generation between the two.
Many of the teachers said they feel overwhelming support from colony parents and feel welcomed into the Hutterite community.
"Everyone is so kind," Perrion said. "They're behind the teacher. I feel very appreciated."
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Information from: Aberdeen American News, http://www.aberdeennews.com
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