Vermillion School District 13-1

Vermillion School District 13-1, doing business as Austin Elementary School, is a South Dakota public school district operating as a federal grant recipient in K–12 education, with 60% of recent awards coming as a sub-recipient and 40% as a prime recipient under education and nutrition formula and project grants. The district is a U.S. local government entity headquartered in Vermillion, South Dakota, serving 1,390 students across one high school, one middle school, and two elementary schools across Clay and Union counties in southeastern South Dakota.

The district's federal funding footprint centers on three core education programs. The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education funds Indian Education Formula Grants to LEAs (local education agencies) — the district has received recurring annual awards in this program for fiscal years 2022 through 2027, with the most recent award dated July 1, 2026, running through June 30, 2027. The Food and Nutrition Service of the Department of Agriculture supplies recurring National School Lunch Program (NSLP) Block Grants, with fifteen sub-awards recorded from October 2023 through October 2025 as pass-through grants from the South Dakota Department of Education. The district also receives sub-awards for Title I Basic, Title IIA, Title IV, Title I-1003 School Improvement, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Flow-Through and Preschool funding, and Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education (PERKINS) grants — all flowing through South Dakota Department of Education as the prime grantee.

In its role as prime recipient, the district holds a single project grant from the Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Program (COPS), awarded October 1, 2023, with ultimate completion September 30, 2026. That award funds school safety infrastructure improvements including video surveillance system upgrades, intercom systems with door cameras, window protection installation, and training partnerships with the Vermillion Police Department and Clay County Sheriff's Office, with explicit reference to ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) training and regular drills.

Award volume spiked in 2023 with fourteen awards, dropped to eight in 2024, recovered to eleven in 2025, and shows one award recorded for 2026 to date. The district has obligated $6.7 million in combined federal funding across fifty-two recorded awards spanning from August 2007 to July 2026. Only one award faces ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, presenting minimal recompete exposure in the near term. The South Dakota Department of Education acts as prime grantee on the vast majority of the district's sub-awards, channeling federal formula and block-grant funding downstream; the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Food and Nutrition Service account for 100% of the district's recent award count by customer agency.