The Minot School Board reviewed and approved two documents related to the planned auction sale of the Bell School building at its regular meeting Thursday, Dec. 11.

Board member Scott Louser said the board should be comfortable with the listing agreement hashed out between the district and Northern Auction but said in the future there should be firmer guidelines in place.

The board approved the release of the actual listing for the auction after it was reviewed by legal counsel. Business manager Laura Dokken clarified the actual auction of the school’s bell will be held onsite separately from the land auction, which will be held online.

“The first walkthrough is (Dec. 15), so this is coming up really quick, and another in January, with the date of auction being Feb. 11. So anybody interested, from our perspective as the board, should contact the auctioneer,” Louser said.

Louser also provided a report from the activities committee regarding the future of hockey at the district’s two high schools. Currently, students from both schools compete on the same team, known as Minot United.

Louser said after meeting with coaches and conducting research, it was determined fielding a varsity and junior varsity at both schools will require teams of 30 skaters at each school. Louser said Bismarck High, Century and Legacy were in a similar situation, and it took Legacy six years before it had the numbers to have a team of its own.

One key difference identified by Louser is the presence of the Junior Gold program in Minot, which would allow those students who don’t make the varsity squad to have another option to play while the two schools only have one team. Louser said Minot United has 44 skaters with seven cuts. Louser said the numbers down the road project the transition won’t be happening before 2030.

“We’re not at those numbers yet. When we say 30 skaters per school, that would be enough for a JV and varsity at both schools. A total of four teams and two programs,” Louser said. “We’re not hitting that magic number in either of the next three years.”

Louser said 30% of the skaters in Minot local youth programs don’t continue on playing in high school, and he identified the availability of ice time as a compounding issue. Louser suggested revisiting the issue every two years to determine if numbers have reached the necessary level.

The Minot Public School Board also heard the findings of the district’s annual audit, which didn’t identify any major issues.

Mindy Piatz with accounting firm BradyMartz provided the report and thanked Dokken and her team for their efforts.