Lakota Public School District 66

Lakota Public School District 66, operating as Lakota Elementary School, is a rural school district in Lakota, North Dakota that acts as a federal grant recipient (17% of awards as prime recipient) and sub-recipient (83% of awards), receiving education and nutrition funding from the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Agriculture. The district does not hold federal contracts and operates as a U.S. local government entity with no SBA certifications.

The district's federal footprint centers on two main funding streams. As a prime recipient, Lakota has received four consecutive annual formula grants from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education under the Small, Rural School Achievement Program, with awards on July 1 of 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 (the most recent running through September 30, 2027). The district also received a project grant from the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service for Community Facility Grants, awarded June 23, 2023 and completing June 23, 2025. As a sub-recipient, the district draws the vast majority of its federal dollars through pass-through awards from the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction, which distributes U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service funding for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), and Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP), as well as Department of Education Title I and other compensatory education funding. The sub-awards arrive as monthly or quarterly tranches tied to school operational cycles — NSLP Free/Reduced, NSLP Paid, SBP, and FFVP sub-awards flow monthly or quarterly starting in early 2022 through mid-2026, with Title I comingle funding delivered in blocks pegged to school years.

Customer concentration is complete: the Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service and the Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education together account for 100% of the district's 65 federal awards (43 and 21 awards respectively), with a single Rural Utilities Service award rounding out the agency roster. Combined federal dollars obligated across all awards total $955 thousand. Recent activity shows growth from five awards in 2022 to nineteen in both 2025 and 2026. Looking forward, only one award faces completion within the next twenty-four months, reducing immediate recompete pressure on the district's funding pipeline. The district's federal engagement is characteristic of rural school districts nationwide — it operates principally as a conduit for child nutrition and Title I compensatory education dollars distributed by state agencies, with periodic direct grants for school capital or rural economic development.