‘It means more than you’ll ever know’

Renee Ullom, President of Brandon Valley Board of Education

As Renee Ullom directed traffic under sunny skies at the farewell celebration of Valley Springs Elementary earlier this month, emotions took over as she reflected on what the school has meant to her and her family.

“It probably means more than you’ll ever know,” Ullom said through a quivering voice. “It’s just been a part of my life for 30 years, and it’s going to be hard to let go, but at the same time, it’s something we have to do.”

The Ullom’s attachment to VSE goes back to when Renee and her husband, Ron, first moved here.

“We knew if we lived on the east side of 484th that our kids would go to school here, so that’s why we moved to the east side of 484,” she said. “And my kids had a great experience.”

With just shy of 70 students in the building this school year, Ullom remembers a time when the school housed two sections of each grade, which added up to about 220 kids in the building.

“It was hustle and bustle and busy, and it was big enough to where we knew that the education they were getting was the best. At the same time, it was small enough to where we could do things as a whole school that nobody else could do, and that was probably the best part of it.”

A few of those “things that nobody else could do” was treat the entire student body to a school-day trip to the Omaha Zoo and dance parties like no other, inviting local people in to teach the dance moves.

“We just knew we could do those things that nobody else could,” she said, adding, “I’ve always said VSE is the best kept secret in South Dakota.”

As the longtime school board president, Ullom said making the decision to close VSE was one of the most difficult votes she’s had to make in that role.

“This was a decision that I was hoping I would never have to make on my watch. However, it makes fiscal sense. It makes sense to have each of the kids have more of an equitable education,” she said. “This school has served its purpose, so it was time, and I think with the whole construction thing on the eastside of Brandon and the change in the construction schedule, it made it so that we needed to do it now.”

Ullom, like many others, has fond memories of the century-old school and what it’s meant to the Valley Springs community.

“I just hope people take away good memories, camaraderie. Remember the memories and the people. That’s what I’ve said from the beginning. The school is a building. Yes. it’s sentimental. Yes, it’s a building. Yes, it has special memories. But the true memories of who was in the building when you interacted with the people and the memories you made with them is what counts,” she said.