Bismarck Tribune

Compiled byCompiled by

LAUREN DONOVAN

After losing a football game against Beulah, New Town went on the offensive.

The high school game ended 42-0 three weeks ago, but it didn't end there.

The small team of 17 players and coaches went up to the Beulah Dairy Queen for a late-night supper before boarding the bus for the long ride home.

The Beulah Beacon newspaper, citing the owner of the restaurant, reported at length and in detail that a disgruntled New Town team left trash, a dirty dining room and urine on the bathroom walls in its wake.

The Dairy Queen owner contacted the New Town School Board, and New Town head football coach Dave Williams sent the restaurant a letter of apology. The North Dakota High School Activities Association also was drawn in to censure the incident.

Jared Eagle, assistant football coach from New Town, and nearly 50 New Town residents sent or signed letters published in the Beulah Beacon last week, refuting the newspaper's description of events.

Eagle said the team didn't leave trash outside and - despite the statement that "men" went into the bathroom and urinated on floors, walls and fixtures - none of the four male coaches used the bathroom, and the team captain, who was among the last to use the facility, said it looked normal to him as he left.

Eagle said the coaches are upstanding community members and have a long history of being associated with kids. He said the idea that the men would walk out to the bus across a litter of trash left by the team "was preposterous."

He said the team hasn't been successful in the win column this season. Still, the team was congratulated for its hard work and sportsmanship by a Beulah coach and a game official, who said he planned to name the team for a sportsmanship award. Eagle said, far from being angry, the team was playing music, laughing and goofing around in the locker room. There was no show of resentment, he said.

The New Town business and community members, in their letter, called the story an "unmitigated disgrace." They said the newspaper report caused great damage, not only because so-called facts were not true, but also because it displayed bigotry and a "crudely small view of the world."

"But for the fact that this was New Town, there would not have been a news story, or complaints hitting the desks of NDHSAA officials," their letter said. "Our community is aware, often acutely, of the different treatment we receive and the often not-so-subtle remarks about our town and our people."

New Town is on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, and the population is a mix of white and tribal members.

In an editor's note, the newspaper says it did a thorough investigation of the Beulah incident and stands by the story as originally published.

- Beulah Beacon

Build without bids

The Department of Public Instruction turned on the green light for a Napoleon school project.

A community committee has been raising money to renovate the gymnasium and is now ready to add a community activity and wrestling room, two locker rooms and a community weight lifting room.

The problem came with moving into the final phase of the work and whether state law requiring bids for projects above a certain dollar threshold applied in this instance.

The committee said the project doesn't involve taxpayer money. All funds and labor would be donated and therefore, the bid law wouldn't come into play.

Committee member Dale Johnson said if an architect and bids were required, the project would cost more.

Logan County State's Attorney Gerald Kuhn said the money has been publicly raised and donated and doesn't fall under the control of the school board and that approval for the project "should be easily and quickly obtained."

The school board remained uneasy and asked the superintendent to line up a meeting with DPI first.

The DPI concurred that the improvements could go forward without bidding because labor and money is being donated.

If weather permits, the committee hopes to break ground on the athletic addition Monday.

- Napoleon Homestead

Golden school days

With her soft gray hair parted down the middle and pulled back into a bun, and her wire-rimmed glasses, Ruth Johnson looks the part of a lovely school marm from years gone by.

Johnson, who teaches elementary math, history and general curriculum at the DeMores Elementary School in Medora, does have some old-fashioned ideas about learning, but they all add up to something remarkable.

She was a finalist for the 2007 North Dakota Teacher of the Year award, named this past weekend at the annual teacher conference in Bismarck.

Her first teaching job was in Beulah, where she was paid $3,600.

After 38 years on the job, she said she has loved almost every minute of it and would go right back to the beginning and do it all over again.

Johnson said it's her job to create a delightful place for children to be safe and happy.

The important aspects of her work are to earn the trust of children, share all her knowledge and expertise, and model love, kindness, patience, and caring and consideration of humankind. She said she strives to find a sixth, or seventh, if necessary, way to explain concepts like the International Date Line so finally kids will say, "I get it."

"Yes, I have been discouraged. Of course, I have been angry. Yes, I have been impatient and crabby and tired and sad. But, I would not trade my life as a classroom teacher for any other. I am happy to go to work. I whistle and sing and laugh every day. I make a difference," she said.

- Billings County Pioneer