Lakota Tech High School is a public high school in unincorporated Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, near the Pine Ridge census-designated place and with a Pine Ridge postal address.[1] It is in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It is a part of the Oglala Lakota County School District.
Its high school program is one of five high schools that are within the boundaries of the reservation.[2] Additionally, of all of the public high schools on Indian reservations, it is the only one focusing on technical and career-oriented curricula.[3]
Previously the district did not operate a high school building and required high school students staying with the district to attend virtual school.[4]
In August 2019 the district and the state of South Dakota began a partnership to establish the first non-Bureau of Indian Education public high school on the reservation.[5] Kristi Noem, Governor of South Dakota, jointly announced this with management of the school district.[6]
In July 2019 the district hired Stephanie Eisenmenger as the first principal.[7] Groundbreaking occurred in November 2019. There were plans to open in-person use of the school earlier, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic in South Dakota the school itself was not yet open in July 2020. It is centered on career and technical education (CTE).[8] The district had anticipated that about 100 students would enroll at the school.[9] The school opened in fall 2020.[10]
The enrollment at the end of the 2020-2021 school year was almost 400.[9]
In 2022 the Lieutenant Governors' STEM Scholarship Program gave the school $1,000 as an award because the curricula had science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) content, and the funds were to be used on weather-related content.[3]
By February 2021 the gymnasium opened, and that month it began its athletics programs; the school is not under tribal law so, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it did not have to follow tribal directives to end athletics temporarily. This meant would-be athletes transferred to Lakota Tech.[10] In November 2020 the South Dakota High School Activities Association (SDHSAA) decided that a student wishing to participate in a school athletics program at a particular school may move to that school if the student's previous school had suspended its own athletics programs.[11]