RAPID CITY, S.D. (KELO) — People continue to have strong opinions on South Dakota’s proposed Social Studies Standards. There have been more than 1,000 public comments since the new standards were released. 117 of those in support of and 940 against with 37 neutral comments. Today even more people gathered in Rapid City to share their thoughts with the Board of Education.

Outside today’s meeting, you could find opponents dressed in red, carrying signs and marching in opposition to the proposed social studies standards.

Inside the meeting, educators including recent teacher of the year Jennifer Macziewski, spoke to the board.

“You need to trust our education and experience. These standards are too much, too soon with not enough time, not enough money and not enough resources to get the job done. These will cause furthur detriment to our teacher shortages, our budget constrictions, our student behaviors, our public perception, and like I mentioned before, our test scores,” Jennifer Macziewski, opponent, said.

Others showed support for the new social studies standards, including Greg Von Wald – the former president of Mitchell Technical Institute.

“The subpoints to these standards are much more prescriptive in nature that we saw in the 2015 standards. And I believe that the prescription will help so that we do not inadvertantly leave out or lose critical information for our students’ education,” Greg Van Wald, proponent, said.

The Board of Education also gave an update on the Social Studies standards revision process. Including, minor grammatical changes, the addition of important Native American names, and revising the scope of geography.

“During this process, it is not uncommon for changes to be made to the proposed standards after public comment,” Vera Tipton, Office of Standards, Learning and Leadership, said.

This is the third of the four public hearings on the proposed Social Studies Standards. The next meeting is April 17th in Pierre.