Ciara Parizek/MDN Students from Bell Elementary School will be transferring to John Hoeven Elementary School in the fall, and John Hoeven Elementary held an open house for the families of Bell students to see their new school and try out the playground equipment on Wednesday. Top row, left to right, are Kenna Marker, Karsynn Mahlum and Kaiah Marker, and bottom row, left to right, Brooklyn Alder and Kaisley Marker.

Former students and teachers mingled and shared memories with current staff and students on Wednesday at Bell Elementary School during the Bell School Community Open House.

Graduated students and retired teachers toured the school to see how things had changed over the years. One former student expressed his feelings of nostalgia after walking into the gym.

“It’s weird for me because of the fact of how low the ceiling is, you would have to shoot at the basket instead of up at the basket,” Scott Burleson recalled.

He attended Bell from fifth through eighth grades in the 1990s. Upon entering the gym, he had hoped things would have been more updated.

Playing basketball for the school, he wanted to be involved with more than one sport.

“I wanted to do track, but I have a hard time just running for fun,” Burleson said with humor.

He also mentioned that at the time, his class size was only about six students.

Going back even further in time, Vicki Rust, a retired kindergarten and fourth grade teacher at Bell, said there used to be three different Bell schools. A two-room school was located in the small town of Logan, a one-room school on the current property and a one-room school was a few miles from the current location.

The property the school sits on was donated to Minot Public Schools by the Mostad family.

The current school was built in 1963, hosting 93 students its first year.

In 2008, Bell was taken into the MPS system, after operating as its own district for decades.

Tobi Lynne, a retired teacher from Bell, reminisced about a trip the whole school took in 1989 to celebrate North Dakota’s 100 years of statehood.

Students were put into buses and taken to Mary College in Bismarck, now the University of Mary, and a small village had been put together to show what it would have been like to travel and live as the settlers did in the early 19th century. She also described the setting as being pioneer village-style.

“All the students got to go, and it was fantastic,” Lynne said.

The main table on the south wall held memorabilia, such as Principal’s Albums containing photos of students and staff members as the years passed. Old photo albums were available for viewing, as well as meeting minutes and yearbooks. T-shirts and jerseys from different years were displayed.

Cindy Flamming, another retired teacher from Bell, greeted people as they approached and shared memories, as well.

“I would say the sense of community out here is huge,” Flamming said.

That sense of community went so deep that two families had fifth-generation children attending Bell Elementary.

It’s sad that it’s going the way it is,” Burleson said. “I wish it could keep going. It seems like it’s definitely got a nice class going on here.”