District Information

Community Engagement

Cardinal Vision Our Community - Our Vision

Cardinal Vision: One Community • One Vision is a community-led public engagement program that brings parents, grandparents, families and community members together to move our schools forward by developing a long-range plan to address key challenges facing South Sioux City Community Schools. Everyone is encouraged to participate and your input will help develop a vision for the future of our schools!

Board of Education Calls for Special Election on May 13th

The South Sioux City Community Schools Board of Education has officially called for a Special Election on May 13, 2025. This is a historic opportunity for our community to invest in safer, modern schools and the future of education.

This plan was built by the community, for the community. Over the past year, we have gathered input through:

✅ Five Community Workshops
✅ Building Tours
✅ Two Community Surveys

With your feedback, we identified key priorities to improve our schools for all students:

  • Replacing our three oldest schools with modern, efficient facilities
  • Improving safety and security measures across the district
  • Enhancing accessibility and infrastructure for all learners
  • Creating better learning environments to support student success

Students Take Part in the Process
On Wednesday, March 12th, Educators Rising students had the opportunity to experience civic engagement firsthand! A few students joined Dr. Ortega in delivering the official resolution to the county office—taking an active role in shaping the future of education.

What’s Next?
With the election officially set for May 13th, we will continue sharing details and answering questions to ensure our community is well-informed.

CV4 Poster in PDF

Cardinal Vision Report – A Community Effort for Our Students’ Future

South Sioux City Community Schools is proud to release the Cardinal Vision Final Report, a comprehensive summary of the community-led engagement initiative focused on addressing the district’s aging and crowded school facilities. Through a series of stakeholder community engagement workshops and community wide surveys, students, families, staff, and community members provided valuable insights to help shape the district’s future.

“The Cardinal Vision process has been instrumental in gathering community voices to guide our district’s direction,” said Dr. Rony Ortega, Superintendent of South Sioux City Community Schools. “The level of engagement and thoughtful feedback we received underscores the deep commitment our community has to our schools and the need to plan for long-term facility improvements.”

The final report, along with survey results, is available here:

The findings will help inform the school board with decision-making.

For more information, visit read the information below and/or contact Lance Swanson, District Communications at 712.490.5527 ()

KTIV News Story of Final Report and Recommendations 

KCAU News Story on Final Report and Recommendations

Sioux City Journal Story on Final Report and Recommendations

 

Thank you for helping us plan for the future by addressing challenges such as:

  • Aging buildings
  • Outdated infrastructure
  • Safety and security updates
  • Changing needs of today’s students

At a Cardinal Vision community engagement session, attendees learned more about these challenges and participated in interactive activities with fellow community members to help set priorities to move our schools forward.

Cardinal Vision Community Engagement Sessions
Each session provided information about and gathered feedback on different topics as we worked together as a community to develop recommendations to address our schools’ challenges.

 

All sessions were held from 6 - 8 p.m. in the gym at the Middle School, 3625 G Street. (Attendees should enter through Door #1.)  

Building Needs Assessment Reports: Cardinal - Covington - Dakota City - EN Swett - Harney - Lewis & Clark - Middle School - High School - Admin -  All Buildings (District-wide) One Pager  -  Needs Assessment Reports All on One Page

Cardinal Vision Place Mat with the Building Ages & Capacity Levels (17x11) in PDF

Building Tours & Workshop Promotional Card (4up) in PDF

SSC School District Building Locations Map with Addresses in PDF

Flyer / Syllabus / Outline of Topics for all Workshops / Sessions & Tours in PDF

Click here to download the original Flyer (like shown below) in PDF

Registration is not required, but RSVPing here [Spanish RSVP Form] will be helpful for planning. Thank you