The Minot Public Schools board voted 3-2 at the last regular school board meeting to set public input meetings on the closure of elementary schools in the district with enrollment below 100 students, putting McKinley and Bell elementaries on the block for potential closure. The district has previously estimated the possible savings from the closure to be between $500,000-$1 million.

The meeting began with brief remarks from Superintendent Mark Vollmer who laid out the ground rules for the public input section before sharing the school’s projected enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year, which totaled 66 students between kindergarten and fifth grade. The numbers didn’t include students attending McKinley on tuition waivers or who were going to be returning to schools on Minot Air Force Base.

Vollmer then handed the mic to Elementary Assistant Superintendent Bryn Iverson, who broke down several possible options being considered by the board. Iverson said there could be other solutions beyond the ones she would be presenting, and the district was open to hearing them.

The first of these options was keeping McKinley open by combining classes for grades second/third and fourth/fifth, and reassigning two classroom teachers and having sections for music, physical education and counseling.

Other options included several variations of closing the school and transferring students to Longfellow, Lewis and Clark, Roosevelt or dividing the students amongst all three. Classroom teachers and title teachers would be reassigned and custodial, lunchroom and classified staff would be placed at other schools in the district.

Another option involved the closure of Bell and the transfer of its students to McKinley, which would have a total estimated enrollment of 138 students, and the reassignment of Bell’s teachers and support staff. Iverson said there isn’t a guarantee that staff will get a specific placement when they are reassigned, but there is a guarantee that staff will be placed somewhere.

The meeting moved to public input, which included 13 parents, educators and community stakeholders. The first to speak was McKinley Elementary secretary Deb Martin, who implored the board to consider the cost the closure would have on the lives of the students who depend on the structure and stability the small school provides them.

“The children of McKInley and Bell are not numbers. They have a name. Their life has a story. Most of the time that personal life story is devastating and sad. We are their safe place, their comfort zone. These children know when they walk through the doors at McKinley, they are safe, they are loved and that they matter.” Martin said, “Closing McKinley and sending them to another school to address this deficit will only cause another deficit, and that deficit will be in these children’s lives. A deficit you will never be able to repair.”

Several of the parents who spoke at the meeting said they purchased homes nearby the school to ensure their children would be able to attend, including Angel Cornelius who purchased a home across the street with her four children in mind. Cornelius spoke in support of the smaller class sizes as part of the appeal of the school, a sentiment that was echoed multiple times throughout the public input.

t“Have you looked at this neighborhood to know how many little kids are growing up here? Do you know that there is a family here with four little children looking forward to coming here?” Cornelius said, “If you want to look at enrollment numbers, you can’t just look at next year. There’s little kids here who will be joining this school. A little broader research could do us all some good.”

Other parents who spoke shared they were alumni of McKinley and were grateful their children were able to attend it as well. One such parent, Michelle Ware, told the board if they move forward with closing McKinley, she would likely transfer her children to schools in smaller communities outside the Minot School District.

A statement was also made by Minot City Council candidate Mike Blessum, who referred the district to questions he put to them at school board meetings on Sept. 22, 2022, and Sept. 14, 2023, where he shared his concerns regarding the district’s finances at the time. Blessum said at the time he told them they likely would be contending with the predicament it finds itself in, including the possible closure of two elementary schools.

“Incredibly it appears I was the only person in those two meetings that could foresee budget problems coming and that closing neighborhood elementary schools would be your only option. You had two years to begin the process of addressing the budget issue and chose to do nothing.” Blessum said, “Two possible conclusions can be drawn from your choices. The first possibility is that you entered into this entire sequence of events with the knowledge that opening a new school would cause a budget crisis that would force these schools to be closed to anyone. Number two is that you didn’t know, and didn’t care enough to ask. I’m not sure which is worse.”

The board will be posting answers to questions posed at the meeting on the district’s website. Another meeting is to be held today at Bell Elementary, which is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. The board will likely make a decision at the next regular meeting scheduled for Feb. 15 at 4:30 p.m. at the Minot Area Workforce Academy.