512 E Van Buren St
Rapid City, SD 57701

Central is the best high school in Rapid City due to its diversity, teachers, and opportunities of all kinds.

If you can only afford to live on the north side of town, but can afford to transport your child to and form school, I would avoid North at all cost! The administration seems helpful and understanding, but the teachers are burnt out and apathetic to the rampant racism, substance use, and violence that is unfolding around them. Although middle school age is innately socially challenging for most children, this school and the environment it has allowed to cultivate among its students, will bring the worst out of your child academically, and worst of all emotionally. Put simply, if North School was an area, it would definitely be Skid Row.

This school is awful. They seem to care more about attendance then academics or the children's safety. When i would speak to someone about how my daughter was doing they would give me very little info and then give me a stack of papers on why attendance was important. She had only been late once for a doctor's appointment. Then winter came with below zero temps. We only had one vehicle and a newborn so I didn't feel walking my daughter to school was a good idea anymore. I let them know she would be a little late some mornings waiting for my husband to get off work. The principle told me to have my autistic 7 year old daughter walk to school by herself. We had never lived in a city before and we don't live in a very safe part of town. Also, she would have to go through a busy intersection and then 10 blocks in that freezing weather. I expressed how and why I felt it was a bad idea and the principle treated me like I was ridiculous. I homeschooled my daughter for the remainder of the year.