Marching in Madison: South Dakota Bands at DSU Homecoming Parade

It's a busy band day in South Dakota! Area bands, led by the mighty Spirit of Madison Marching Band, kicked off a big day of music by marching up Madison's Main Street in the Dakota State University Trojan Days homecoming parade.

Madison Bulldogs


Chester Flyers


Arlington Cardinals


Flandreau Public Fliers (thanks, Matt!)


Deuel Cardinals


Madison Middle School

Director Luke Sursely has these kids whipped into shape!

Montrose Irish

Director Justin Whitcomb is a Madison band alumnus. Looking sharp!

Dell Rapids St. Mary Cardinals

The Dell Rapids corps was marching right behind the Dennis Daugaard for Governor campaign vehicle, the only political entrant in today's parade. The Munsterman campaign must have been too busy making up better ad hominem attacks. Isn't there some old campaign saw about catching more votes throwing candy than throwing mud?

Oldham-Ramona-Rutland Raiders

We've been waiting for some cowbell! (Sorry about the battery, kids!)

Howard Tigers

Arlington HS Rocks out on ACT, Leads State with 26.07 Average

So that's how they landed that call center...

Standardized tests are a game, with test scores as arbitrary as football scores. But if you have to play the game, you might as well play it well. Arlington High School has played the ACT game very well. KJAM reports that Arlington posted the highest average ACT score in South Dakota, a whopping 26.07.

Numerical perspective: 36 is perfect on the ACT. But that doesn't mean Arlington scored a 72%; scores are normally distributed around a mean that, in 2008, was 21.1. Anything in the 30s is generally regarded as remarkable. SDSU considers 24 enough to qualify for the Jackrabbit Gurantee. In 2008, South Dakota's state average was 22.0. Beating 26 as a group average is pretty darn good.

Arlington principal Rhonda Gross tries to keep the bar low, telling KJAM she's not sure Arlington's next crop of test-takers will be able to score so high. But I say keep the heat on those kids, Rhonda! When you win the state track meet or one-act contest, you don't tell the kids and parents, "Well, we probably can't pull that off again." You mount that big plaque on the wall where every kid can see it and tell them every day, "If they can do it, you can do it!"

Congrats to the students and teachers of Arlington High School, enrollment 102—keep up the good work!

Arlington Gets 75 New Call Center Jobs

California-based software company Link It is expanding to its third South Dakota location, bringing our neighbors in Arlington 75 jobs. They're crappy call center jobs—so close to DSU, it would be nice to see some programming jobs to entice our young people to pump their skills and wages into the local economy—but in the middle of a recession, we'll take what we can get.

Hmm... maybe some of those call center workers would like to buy an "affordable" $115K house from the LAIC and commute from Madison?

By the way, here's another dent in the armor for those of you who hate government spending: Link It's success is built in part on free money from the State of South Dakota. Socialism? Corporate welfare? Discuss amongst yourselves....