Submitted  Photo Minot High School-Magic City Campus has a vocational and technical center addition that was built in recent years. The school building is attended by juniors and seniors.

Events have been canceled or postponed and schools and businesses have been closed across the state as well as nationwide and worldwide to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.

But even though doors to Minot Public schools are shuttered, perhaps for the remainder of the school year, the problem of overcrowded middle and high schools will still be there whenever face-to-face classes resume.

Last month, Minot Public Schools Superintendent Mark Vollmer said Jim Hill Middle School is currently over capacity, with portable classrooms in use to handle the overflow. Erik Ramstad Middle School, while not as overcrowded, will also be at capacity. Larger class sizes are moving through the school system and younger students will soon also be of high school age.

As of last fall, enrollment stood at 7,722 students, with enrollment in K-5 at 4,017; at 1,704 in grades 6-8, and at 2,001 students In grades 9-12. Enrollment has been holding steady, with larger class sizes at the elementary and middle school level than at the high school and officials believe that trend will continue.

Schools at Minot Air Force Base, including Memorial Middle School and North Plains and Dakota Elementaries, are not considered when the district calculates space needs since those schools are attended by children of military personnel only.

To address space needs at schools in Minot, voters approved a $39.5 million bond issue in the spring of 2014 that paid for the construction of the new John Hoeven Elementary in southeast Minot, classroom additions at Edison and Perkett Elementaries, and safety improvements at the schools. The stated goal at the time was to eliminate portable classrooms at the elementaries. At one time Washington Elementary – which had been converted from the former Medical Arts Clinic more than a decade ago and at the time had extra classrooms that district personnel thought would amply provide for the district’s anticipated space needs – was surrounded by portable classrooms because it was over capacity.

The new Erik Ramstad Middle School and an addition at Longfellow Elementary were completed after the Souris River flood of 2011, in part with funds received from the government after the old Ramstad and Lincoln Elementary were destroyed by the flood. The district also used some local funds to pay to build the 127,000 square foot Ramstad a bit larger than its predecessor. Classroom additions were also added at Lewis and Clark Elementary and Sunnyside Elementary in recent years, as well as at Jim Hill Middle School. A vocational and technical center addition at Magic City Campus as well as its athletic fields could potentially be utilized by students at a second high school if one is ever built

Voters had rejected a grander bond issue in December 2013 that would also have paid for the construction of a new high school and to convert Minot High School-Central Campus into a third middle school. Voters thought the price tag was too high and chose to put off the needs of the middle school and high schools for a few more years.

The Minot school board has held planning sessions this year and discussed how to address overcrowding.

Last month the district announced that it has acquired 70 acres of property south and east of Erik Ramstad Middle School for the nominal fee of $1. The land was owned by Northern Lights Idlewild, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. Though they made no plans for what to do with the land, board members speculated that it might be a good location for a second high school if voters in the district eventually approve another bond issue. It might also be put to any other use that the school district sees fit.

At a recent board meeting, board members also discussed rebalancing school attendance boundary lines so that class sizes at schools within the district are more evenly balanced.

Lewis and Clark Elementary, for example, has been growing more in student numbers because of people moving into that area and other schools are less crowded.

Board members expressed an interest in maintaining neighborhood schools where possible and minimizing the number of students who might be required to change schools because of a boundary change but also to pay attention to fiscal considerations and maximizing the use of the buildings.