Sara Hento
Attorney
Sara is licensed in both Nebraska and South Dakota and is the resident vagabond of KSB as she has been stationed out of both the Lincoln and Sioux Falls offices.
A native of West Point, Nebraska, Sara attended West Point Central Catholic, the second best school in town (go West Point Cadets!). Sara was active in high school, especially as “a speech kid” and remains involved in the speech (oral interp for you SD-ers) world. #nerdalert
After high school, Sara attended the University of South Dakota, where she majored in accounting. But something didn’t add up. (get it???) Despite her obvious intellectual chops and ability to think with her right brain, she decided to go to law school. Being a glutton for punishment, she decided to pursue her master’s in accounting at the same time. She graduated with high honors in 2015 with a joint degree in law and professional accountancy. We sure are glad she did because her 2 worlds were about to line up and eventually lead her to KSB.
After doing a few clerkships during law school, clerking for the South Dakota Judicial First Circuit after law school, and working for a short time at another law firm in Yankton, SD, Sara was encouraged to enter the school administrator realm when her school auditor BFF informed her the position of school business manager was available at the Avon School District. For five years, prior to joining KSB in January 2022, Sara was the business manager, oral interp coach, and performed many “other duties as assigned.” The school administrators and community members in Avon were effusive in their praise for Sara, so obviously the bribes worked. We were almost sorry to steal her away. Almost.
Her experiences and knowledge from serving as an administrator/business official are invaluable (even to someone who can do math) at KSB. Sara has extensive first-hand experience in many school law areas, but especially in HR and employment issues, employee benefits, school finance, federal programs management, and a lot of the other stuff related to money the rest of us try to avoid like the plague. Sara also focuses a large portion of her practice on special education and related topics.
Sara is a thoughtful leader and passionate about community service, because she’s a better person than the rest of us. (Wait, who let Sara write this part?) She still judges speech and volunteers in countless ways.
(And yes, luckily (unluckily? Imagine the stories she could tell…) she avoided any overlap with the time KSB’s own Jordan Johnson was a student at Avon. However, her intel on Mr. Johnson remains incredibly valuable--without it, we’d never know there was once a picture of Jordan hanging in the local grocery store (probably a mug shot)).
LICENSED IN:
Nebraska
South Dakota
Sara@ksbschoollaw.com
EDUCATION
University of South Dakota Law School, J.D., High Honors
University of South Dakota, M.P.A.
University of South Dakota, B.B.A.
Fun Facts
• When Sara was 9, she was nicknamed “Betsy Ross” by a pack of elderly ladies she quilted with. To this day, Sara’s sewing skills would make her a first round draft pick for the Oregon Trail.
• In high school, Sara was an avid “extemp” nerd who qualified twice for the NSAA State Speech Competition. She can attest that many of her former competitors are now also attorneys.
• Sara is a type 8, wing 7 for those who are obsessed with the enneagram.
• Sara’s love language is travel, and she is always looking forward to the next stamp on her passport.
• Sara was once told by a golf professional that she could practice golf every day for 10 years and still be terrible. Alas, that has not slowed Sara’s attempts to strive for “mediocre” golf performance, and she can be found swinging her clubs on the weekends at the local golf course.