McKenzie County Public School District embraces growth, challenges as new school year begins
Steve Hallstrom
Special to The Farmer
A new school year is off and running for the McKenzie County Public School District #1 with classes beginning Monday, August 19th.
District Superintendent Dr. Steve Holen sat down with KTGO Radio (AM 1090/FM 92.7) to discuss enrollment numbers and trends.
“Right now, we’ve had about 158 new students enrolled to date,” said Holen. “We graduated 86. And we have 192 coming into the district in Kindergarten. So, that’s a 106 net increase and we’ve had about 45 withdrawals. So, we’re looking at about 200 students for an increase, which is a little bit more than we expected in our demographic study. So, it’s a good sign.”
Holen says the district is growing for a number of reasons.
“I think we still have a buildup. I think that infrastructure wise and workforce wise, we’re not where we’re supposed to be. I think that industry needs more workers, and all the support services need workers. So, I think we’re just in that phase of continuing to build up that main infrastructure piece. I know we have a housing issue that’s still to be addressed…and we’re still needing more apartments and more housing. So, I think it’s just reflecting the amount of workforce that’s still needed to keep this energy engine going. So, we’re stabilizing and that’s an encouraging piece and we’re not seeing maybe some of the volatility, but still very strong and stable increases each year.”
Holen says there have been some fluctuations over the last five years when it comes to enrollment numbers.
“I think it was about 2018 or 2019, when we had probably the largest (increase) which was surprising for some people, but we were kind of rebounding at that point. The largest net increase has been around 350 students, and we’ve had a couple of times where we’ve eclipsed 300, and then, we’ve averaged 100-200 many of the years and you take out some of the downturn years in COVID where it’s a negative. But it’s intriguing to see; right now, K-5 five, we’re going to have just under 1,200 students; 1,178 is where we’re at right now. The average is about 196 (per grade). You know if you go back 12-13 years, that’s more than we had in the entire K-12. And, you know, 1,178 is (an entire) a school district in the lower end. So, that part is still surprising to us.”
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