Charles Crane/MDN Minot Public Schools’ custodial and facilities staff has moved 300 desks, hundreds of boxes and other classroom furnishings from Central Campus to the new Minot North High School, to prepare the building, shown here on Friday, for its transition into Central Middle School.

Minot Public Schools’ students and educators may be enjoying summer break, but the district’s facilities staff has spent the last two weeks busy realizing the long anticipated realignment process to furnish the classrooms at the new Minot North High School and Central Middle School.

“Our teachers played a large role in readying themselves for the transfer of furnishings between the various schools but are not involved in the actual transporting and transferring of the physical items,” said Jared Edwards, MPS director of facilities. “For the most part it is our custodial and facilities staff along with a number of our bus drivers and other transportation staff conducting the physical moves. It has really been a total team effort thus far.”

Edwards said the process began last week with a majority of Central High School’s student desks, library books and other furniture being moved to Minot North, with a portion going to Magic City Campus. Central Middle School will then be filled through smaller moves from relocated classrooms at Jim Hill, Erik Ramstad and Memorial schools

“They took nearly 300 student desks which were brought down to the commons by students on the last day of school and hauled them up to Minot North. This past Monday is when we started hot and heavy, moving items from Central Campus up there. Teachers had boxed up the items and put their names and room numbers on them. A lot of that stuff was put in the gym,” said Barry Brooks, MPS purchasing director. “We had about three or four volunteers from First Western Bank. That took us a couple days.”

Brooks’s team transported most of the boxes and other items in vans, several district-owned trailers and an enclosed trailer.

“The Minot Area Workforce Academy trailer is kind of a low rider, and we got an enclosed trailer from Keller Paving at no cost. We’ve been using that to load up equipment and supplies to and from the schools,” Brooks said. “We may have to make a return visit when things settle down to take things to the warehouse that aren’t being used. But with such a big school and all the moves, we’re going to get some phone calls saying, ‘I need an extra chair’ or something.”

Brooks said the process was made easier by some teachers visiting their new classrooms to determine if they needed to bring larger furnishings like desks. Brooks said it is important for the district to use all the furniture available, as the price for a new single-column teachers desk has spiked in the last year from around $460 to more than $1,100 due to inflation.

Certain larger items like welding equipment, snow blowers, coat racks and home economic classroom supplies will be transported to Minot North at a later date due to their size, and to allow finishing work to be completed at the new school.

The relocation team has spent the last week concentrating on liquidating the furnishings and classroom items from Bell and McKinley elementaries which were closed at the conclusion of the school year. Bell’s classrooms were moved to John Hoeven School on Monday with assistance from students on the Minot baseball and football teams, but the transport from McKinley to Roosevelt School was delayed by rain and bussing staff being tied up with the start of summer school.

Once the furnishings and classroom boxes have been moved to their new locations, teachers will be able to visit their new spaces and begin reorganizing their classrooms in their new homes so they are ready for the start of the fall term.