Getting Set for a Busy School Year - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Getting Set for a Busy School Year

Time to start hitting the books...almost that is.
While some in the region have already started the school year -- a large majority of kids will do so this week, with the start set for Wednesday for Minot Public.
As the first day approaches, officials within the district are starting to get a better handle on how many kids they will see on day one.

Last year ended with six thousand eight hundred fifty three students...this year it looks like the solid start number will be about 350 more than that.
Students known to have moved out of the district have been taken off the rolls now...and the expected number this week is 72-hundred.
Superintendent Mark Vollmer says they have spent the summer preparing...and are ready for whatever comes their way this week.

(Mark Vollmer - MPS Superintendent) "So we believe that this 72-hundred number is quite real so we have been moving portables around getting ready and hiring teachers.   We feel good about the school year and the number of teachers we do have."

This morning teachers and staff gathered at the Minot Auditorium -- home to Ramstad Middle School again this year -- to officially open the district's year.
Vollmer says the steady stream of new students may continue...and if it does, class sizes may be a bit large to start, but that will be remedied as the year progresses...

(Mark Vollmer - MPS Superintendent) "Now there is a possibility if we have an influx of kids in the next couple of days we may have to for a period of time until we can set up classrooms and hire teachers have some larger class sizes, but the board has been very committed to keeping those numbers, especially in the lower elementary grades, at a low number so they get a good ratio and have good teacher and student time."

The district is using the same set-up this year as last...with Ramstad at the Aud, and Lincoln using First Presbyterian Church once again.