Williston's First Day is Busy - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Williston's First Day is Busy

The first day of school in Williston came with a big question...how many students would actually show up for class?

One of the best places to gauge the answer

was McVay Elementary - the school designated as the one that would hold newly registered students.

And this morning the building was bustling - both with students and with construction workers rushing to get the building completely ready for the year.

McVay is a building that had been closed when enrollments were declining.

Now, it's open again and has a huge new wing under construction - a wing consisting of a row of temporary classrooms.

Keith Leintz has been principal at Rickard Elementary for the past nine years when the school district was shrinking.

(Keith Leintz, McVay Elementary Principal) "When I first got here we were talking declining enrollment, closing schools and now we're opening schools that had been closed and the other elementaries, middle school, and high school are increasing enrollment so it's changed a lot."

(Dr. Viola LaFontaine, Williston Superintendent) "I assured parents education wouldn't be disrupted. It's not as chaotic as it looked earlier this week, things got situated. We'll receive our certification of occupancy, the fire marshall has been here so we've done all the check points for safety and then we have a lot of good teachers."

In that classroom, the teacher had all the students tell classmates where they attended school last year. About half were from outside of Williston.

But in the school's kitchen - there was a loyal McVay student - one of the new cooks at the school attended McVay when she was in first grade.

LeeAnn Hafele, McVay Elementary Cook) "My first grade I went right across the hall here and that was my first grade class and Mrs. O'Connell was my teacher and it was just great."

Superintendent Dr. Viola LaFontaine says it appears first-day enrollment is up about 250 over last year - a slightly smaller increase than was expected in Williston.