Compiled by LAURENDONOVAN

Bismarck Tribune

Schools in North Dakota have an impressive high school graduation rate.

Beulah wants to set that bar as high as it can go - 100 percent.

High school principal Todd Kaylor said two, maybe three students drop out each year and he thinks that's too many.

"Dropping out isn't a school problem. It's a community problem," Kaylor told the school board. "I've seen students who drop out and their life is very limited."

To achieve that 100 percent graduate goal, Kaylor suggests ending an alternative high school arrangement it had with Hazen and going on its own.

Superintendent Rob Lech said the arrangement worked well, but Beulah's declining enrollment means it has room to conduct an in-house program.

"Having to send a kid to another town doesn't help when that kid is having a hard time going to school. The thought was maybe a different format would be better," Lech said.

Kaylor said Beulah plans to use a West Fargo school model, or a "school within a school."

The program will be self-contained and a coordinator will work individually with students. In addition, other teachers will help out as needed.

The students' work will be credited through the North Dakota Center for Distance Learning, of Fargo, where homework and tests will be scored and graded.

"These are kids we don't want to see dropping out at 16. If that is a danger, we want to provide something else to make sure they get the education that they need," he said. "That's what we are here for."

- Beulah Beacon

Bolted from bed

Jim Erdman was just getting up. His wife, Gayle, was enjoying her first cup of coffee on what started out as a normal August morning at their rural Golden Valley farmhouse.

Then, kaboom! things went haywire in an instant.

Lightning struck an old cottonwood tree that had grown just inches from the house. The powerful bolt traveled through the tree and when it came close, or into contact with gutters or other metal pieces, it exploded from the tree and hit the house.

"It was like a bomb went off. And then I smelled smoke," Erdman said.

The smoke was from destroyed electronics, but the structure did not go unscathed.

Electricity jumped to the front door and exploded the door jamb, sending pieces into the laundry room. The house exterior siding, near the tree, looked as if someone had gone at it with a wrecking bar.

"It jumped from the tree, to the house, and followed the metal around, knocked off the siding, broke the door, blew all the wiring, blew the phone apart and wrecked the television," Erdman said.

The same bolt continued on and blew a fuse in the barn, two fuses in the garage and wrecked the garage door opener.

The cottonwood tree, which was planted by Erdman's grandmother in 1904, had been a sentry for more than a century.

"It's a huge cottonwood," he said. It will live, but he'll remove the branch that was struck and hangs over the house.

It took an electrician a full day to get things working again.

"That's getting up with a bang. It was really something," Erdman said.

- Beulah Beacon

Safety in four

Three Affiliated Tribes chairman Marcus Levings wants to turn two lanes into four.

He called a meeting of local leaders to talk about Highway 23, which is increasingly busy with oil traffic.

The chairman thinks the highway should be four lanes from Watford City out to Highway 83 south of Minot.

The meeting was attended by about 35 people, including mayors from New Town, Parshall and Watford City, and officials from law enforcement, the state Department of Transportation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Levings said the four lanes would improve safety and economic opportunity.

Levings took notes as each person provided input and the meeting was also broadcast live on KMHA-FM in New Town.

The chairman said the meeting was a first step and that he planned a follow up meeting with U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan.

"This task force is needed and as chairman I will work with all agencies, from the federal government on down," Levings said. "We need to keep this initiative alive."

- New Town News