| <No.545> |
| Oil Boom Crowding North Dakota Schools |
Through oil boom and bust, and now boom again, John Monger says life’s been a roller coaster in his hometown of Williston, North Dakota.
"Born and raised here.
We’ve been in this town for 47 years."
Monger is now in his 24th year teaching at Hagan Elementary, the last three of them spent working in a temporary modular trailer attached to the school.
"They are smaller than the regular classroom.
And right now I have 18 students.
I started the year out with 16 students."
The oil boom in North Dakota is attracting an overwhelming number of job seekers whose children are crowding the halls of Hagan Elementary.
"We’ve increased enrollment of over 1,000 students in the past five years."
Williston’s superintendent, Viola LaFontaine is the administrator of the smallest but fastest-growing public school district in the state of North Dakota.
She says it's also one of the state's most international.
"I believe its seven different languages that we have spoken in the school now.
And the majority are Spanish, but we have Cantonese, we have French."
While teachers like Monger cope with the challenges of larger class sizes, smaller classrooms, and foreign languages, they are dealing with a constantly changing student body.
"The greatest challenge is the students coming in and out and throughout the whole entire school year, as well as students leaving throughout the entire school year."
LaFontaine says other big challenges are recruiting qualified teachers and financing construction of new facilities to accommodate Williston’s rapidly-growing population.
Though the state of North Dakota is awash in oil revenue, LaFontaine says, it is not providing the funds she needs.
"I mean North Dakota’s always been conservative.
I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.
But now that, you’ve got ample resources.
Let us have some of it, whether it’s grants or loans, or you know preferably grants, that you could use to really support your schools."
"We would definitely like to see another school put in place in the town because we definitely need one."
Voters in Williston will soon get the chance to take the matter into their own hands.
A referendum to raise taxes to fund construction of new school facilities is on the ballot in June.
But it’s not the first time - a previous referendum failed in 2012.
Kane Farabaugh, VOA News, Williston, North Dakota |
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