The district’s planning and development committee met on December 20 to review boundary options for the new elementary and to discuss the proposal for Aurora to move to the Hawk feeder system. Information was assembled to create a presentation for the public following this meeting and prior to the School Board’s review of the recommendations on January 24. 

An Aurora Elementary School PTO meeting was already scheduled for 6:30PM on Tuesday, January 11. It was determined that hosting a question-and-answer session just prior to the PTO meeting in an effort to best reach Aurora families and eliminate the number of evenings their presence was requested at the school. 

The length of the session was intentionally kept short as no presentation or new information was to be shared. Rather, the session was an opportunity for families to ask additional questions. Heritage Middle School will have a similar opportunity, but an open house style, from 4:00PM – 6:00PM on Thursday, January 20. Horace High School will also have a session, including a short presentation, from 5:00PM – 7:00PM on Thursday, January 20. 

Once the School Board votes on a final decision, administration will review the requests and take action as soon as possible. A timely response is particularly important for students who are set to start high school in the fall as class registration has to be completed in the coming months. Our goal is to move quickly on the requests to ensure families know where their student(s) will be located in the future.  

Assuming the School Board approves the recommendation, an online in-district transfer request specific to this boundary adjustment will open the evening of Monday, January 24 with a deadline of Sunday, February 6 at midnight. Requests will be reviewed shortly thereafter, with approvals being communicated to the applicable families by Friday, February 11. Any in-district transfer requests submitted after this deadline must follow our current protocols. 

Our current projections anticipate 1,260 students at Liberty, 1,560 students at Sheyenne High for the fall of 2022 – 2023, increasing significantly each year. 

Various configurations were studied to consider each of the available options. After studying the schools with contiguous boundaries, the district feels that reassigning Aurora Elementary School is the most sensible choice due to the proximity of other schools’ boundaries to Liberty Middle School and Sheyenne High School. While the physical school building coming to 51st Avenue South and Veterans Boulevard (Rocking Horse Farm development) is more south, the attendance zone from either that school or Osgood Elementary School would need to be populated by the area immediately surrounding the Liberty/Sheyenne campus. Therefore, moving this attendance zone is not a desirable option.  

The YMCA determines program interest and ultimately makes the decision as to what locations are feasible for hosting an after-school program. 

Yes. When participation numbers are low at Horace High, the program is combined with Sheyenne High School’s program to ensure the opportunity remains for students. 

Heritage and Horace High are both designed to allow for a potential building expansion. Heritage is capable of expanding to a 1,200-student middle school and Horace High is capable of expanding to a 1,550-student high school. Prior to this expansion occurring, the district will establish a long-range facilities planning task force to gather information from across the community and ultimately propose a bond referendum for additional funding. Ideally, all elementary schools in the Hawk feeder system would be at, or nearing, capacity, at that time, as well as consideration for another elementary school. 

No

Transportation will be provided for the Aurora boundary to Heritage and Horace.  

Families who have elected to remain in the Mustang feeder system may be able to ride the bus if capacity is available. However, additional buses and routes are not being added to accommodate the region. Buses will be in this area until the current high school students complete high school in 2024. 

No

Some class sizes at Horace High are smaller due to the school’s lower enrollment. However, like all schools in the district, Horace High aligns with the district’s goal of not exceeding 30 students per class, with specialty classes/spaces often having even smaller class sizes. 

Yes, the same learning platforms are used across the district at each level (elementary = Smore, secondary = Schoology) 

Enrollment at Liberty Middle School will be beyond building capacity in 2022 – 2023. Allowing students to stay and progress through middle school at Liberty extends the overcrowding in the building for another three or more years. 

Additionally, enrollment at Sheyenne High School is at building capacity. If we allowed the current middle school students to stay at Liberty and continue through Sheyenne High, it would only exacerbate overcrowding. The middle school would be overcrowded for three more years and the high school for six more years (as those students moved through and graduated). Action is required now to avoid such overcrowding. 

Yes, if space allows, we often leave a fifth grade student to finish a year of elementary rather than making an additional transition. We are also looking at when and how to transition elementary students to minimize transitions. 

No, there is, and will be, no space available at Liberty Middle School or Sheyenne High School for the foreseeable future. Yet, both Horace High and Heritage are designed for further expansion when enrollment warrants it and a bond referendum is scheduled and passed.