Bismarck Tribune

By VIRGINIABy VIRGINIAGRANTIER

Housing growth in rural Burleigh County north of Interstate 94 is generating new students faster than Rita Murphy Elementary School can handle them, and so a boundary change might be necessary, says Rich Buresh, an assistant superintendent for the Bismarck Public School District.

"Rita Murphy is our most rapidly expanding elementary school," Buresh said Wednesday.

Murphy, which increased by about 50 students this year and 40 students last year, now is the district's biggest elementary, with 614 students. The district's objective is a 500-student maximum for elementaries.

"We don't want them to be much bigger than that," said Bismarck School Superintendent Paul Johnson.

Murphy, in this year's recently approved budget, will get funding to expand by six classrooms. But that doesn't help the growth issue. School officials say the new classrooms are intended just to allow the school to rid itself of modular classrooms and bring the current population into the school.

The next-largest school is Northridge, which has about 600 students, but actually saw a decrease of 18 students this fall. Buresh said Northridge's population is pretty stable right now. But the district is also aware that won't last and Northridge's situation will have to be dealt with as land in that area is developed.

Miller, at 512, is down 10 students from last fall.

Johnson said some solutions that might be looked at for Murphy, located at 611 N. 31st St., would be shifting boundaries so that Will-Moore and Miller elementaries might take more of the rural students. Johnson said another possibility might be Pioneer Elementary, which has dropped in enrollment recently. Johnson said he thinks the drop at Pioneer is because some of the students who transferred there after Richholt Elementary closed a couple of years ago have graduated from sixth grade and moved on.

Buresh agreed that those are possible solutions, but it's too early in the process to provide much detail. A team, which will analyze the situation and possible solutions, still has to be formed. Buresh said the team will be responsible for coming up with a recommendation for the school board.

The boundary shift would be an interim solution until another school could be built sometime in the future, Buresh said.

Buresh expects that a new school is a few years off into the future.

"Some of our existing buildings need a little dressing up and updating. (But) we do have property to the north that are there when the time comes,"he said.

Recently, the school board directed administrators to start the process of coming up with a recommendation in time for the board's December board meeting.

"The concern was we better get started on this,"Johnson said.

After the recommendation is presented, there will be a one-month period for public input. Buresh said he expected to form a team by mid-October that may include representation, members of the public, from the affected schools.

Buresh said boundary changes are needed periodically to use the district's space as efficiently as possible.

Johnson said much of the growth is happening east of Highway 83 because of the "very affordable housing there and plenty of land available for development." He said houses there priced in the $100,000 to $200,000 range are bringing in the young families that have children.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@;bismarcktribune.com.)