Preparing Dickinson's Prairie Rose

Talk about it

The construction of Prairie Rose Elementary has made excellent progress and is proceeding on schedule.

The construction is scheduled to be completed at the end of this school year with the district taking occupancy of the building in June.

The school district is working on identifying the employees and students who will work at and attend Prairie Rose.

The Dickinson Press recently reported that Sherry Libis will be the principal. She has been employed with the district and serving Heart River Elementary for the past 13 years.

She will provide the building with an experienced background as a principal as well as the leadership skills she has demonstrated during her tenure in the school district.

Also, we are accepting transfer requests from employees who may want to transfer to Prairie Rose for the 2013-2014 school year. Requests were due Wednesday and the district will begin to staff the building. The plan is to proceed with student assignments after that date.

There have been numerous inquiries about how students will be selected to attend the elementary school once it opens next year. There have been extensive discussions about this decision over the past few months.

We plan to open the building in 2013 with K-4 students and expand the attendance to K-5 students in 2014. Our tentative plan is that students who reside north of the interstate will be the general attendance area for Prairie Rose Elementary. However, there are issues that may impact this decision as we begin to make student assignments.

We are all aware that the population of the community continues to increase due to the economic development in North Dakota. Most of the housing development is occurring north of the interstate and a significant portion of that development is around and north of Prairie Rose Elementary. Additionally, there is an annexation on the northeast side of the interstate as well as extensive housing being built south of the interstate on the east side of Dickinson. Further, there seem to be weekly articles in the newspaper about annexation requests that are being presented to the City Council. The uncertainty of population growth and its location continue to be issues that complicate the decision making process about assigning students to Prairie Rose. Finally, it is the intention of the school district to notify parents in January about the students who will attend Prairie Rose.

Hopefully, this helps to clarify the elusive situation that exists regarding the decision to assign students to Prairie Rose. As we proceed to make student assignments to the new elementary school we are hopeful the continued growth and population increase of the community will not create too many complications. Further, we hope all parties will understand the complications we face as we attempt to navigate the uncertainty surrounding this decision. I welcome any comments, suggestions or questions prior to January regarding this decision.

If you have any questions about this topic or any other issue in the Dickinson Public Schools, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sullivan is the Dickinson Public Schools superintendent and can be reached at 701-456-0002 and douglas.sullivan@dickinson.k12.nd.us.

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