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Eureka School principal Janice Gietzen taught reading to a lone third-grader, Wesley Sutton, on Friday afternoon while teacher Betty Goodman taught four fourth through sixth-graders the story of the first Thanksgiving.

It was a typical afternoon at the tiny school north of Minot on U.S. Highway 83, but every day from now on will be the countdown to the end of an era.

The school board voted Oct. 20 to close Eureka School after this school year, after years of discussions. With only five students in grades three through six and no children in the lower grades, it is no longer feasible to keep the building open.

"I love teaching here," said Goodman. "I'm going to be very sad when it closes. It is like a family."

Goodman said she really appreciates being able to give each child one-on-one instructional time.

Sometimes it has been literally a family affair, with most of the students members of one family. David Ruby, a fifth-grader, lives in the Burlington district but is open-enrolled into Eureka. He's had several siblings and cousins who have attended the school. David said it's quiet most of the time at the school "except when the helicopters fly over" and the students can feel the building shake. He said he and his classmates don't fight. He'll be sad to see the school close.

Brianne Sutton, a sixth-grader and the only girl in the school, would have been going on to another school next year anyway, but she said she's still sad that her school is closing. It's such an old building that it would be nice if it could somehow be kept open. Brianne and her younger brothers, Jeremy, a fourth-grader, and Wesley, a third-grader, are the only children in the school who actually live in the Eureka district. Sixth-grader Lowell Dotson is open-enrolled into the Eureka district from Glenburn.

Gietzen said some children who live in the Eureka district have been open-enrolled at schools outside of Eureka. A second-grader was enrolled this year, but his parents decided to enroll him at another school because it was too hard to provide transportation. Eureka is too small to offer before and after school child care like larger schools and it doesn't have busing.

The school has offered all of the academic services that larger districts offer, however. There is a computer for each child in the school, Internet access, and interactive white boards in the classrooms. Children participated in STARBASE at Minot Air Force Base and go on field trips and have the occasional classroom presenter.

Gietzen said the district is approximately six square miles. The district will be dissolved and land will go to surrounding school districts. The board is discussing what to do with the little red school house.