Schools Battle Growth Problems

While the growth in and around Minot is substantial, it's causing some problems for Minot Public ...  More »

While the growth in and around Minot is substantial, it's causing some problems for Minot Public Schools. As Jim Olson reports, some schools are overflowing - but the money to pay for educating the newcomers is not flowing as freely. Out back of the new Washington Elementary School in Minot, you can hear the exicted voices of students enjoying late fall weather. And right next to the playground, you can see the symptom of a problem developing for the school district - portable classrooms have been moved in to handle the overflow of students. (Dr. David Looysen, Minot Superintendent) "Washington three years ago had 207 students, as of the beginning of October we had 414. We're full. We didn't expect this at all, not even close to this. But then at the same time Washington was finished they started building in the southeast a lot more so that's what happened." What happened is growth. Dozens of new homes have been built in southeast Minot. And many of the families are sending their kids to Washington. The problem is that, even though in many cases the homes are in Minot's growing boundaries, they are not within the Minot Public Schools borders. (Dr. David Looysen, Minot Superintendent) "The city can annex all the land it wants and that becomes part of the city. But that doesn't move the boundaries of the school district. So the school district boundaries stay the same unless parents with children want to annex into the Minot School district." And, with a policy called Open Enrollment, kids can attend whichever district their parents like. Only thing is, the property tax money their parents pay, does not come along with them. That means while kids can fill up local classrooms, the school district can't get the tax money needed to build more schools to handle the influx. (Dr. David Looysen, Minot Superintendent) "Most of the new houses that will be built won't be built in our district. So we can't build a school there and take open enrollment kids to pay for the school because the tax money doesn't come with the child in open enrollment." Minot Superintendent Dr. David Looysen says he's not opposed to open enrollment - but the school district may be forced to stop the policy if no solution to the tax revenue issue isn't found. (Dr. David Looysen, Minot Superintendent) "There isn't an easy answer. This isn't just Minot. Bismarck has run into this and they did shut down open enrollment in Bismarck." He says a discussion on what to do will likely go on for many weeks. Jim Olson, KX News. With Washington School full, Looysen says the district has turned down some recent open enrollment requests. But he says those parents still have the option of choosing a different elementary school that is not full.  « Less