Blog #16 - Schools in Change

As factors such as declining enrollment, federal and state school aid cuts, and the recession effect local economies across the Midwest, schools are forced to make decision on how to keep within tighter and tighter budgets. One Minnesota school district has decided to reduce their school week to four days. Warroad school board vowed to cut its budget by $900,000 and $140,000 of that will come from cost savings but the reduced school week.

The Fargo Forum reported on the decision this week with a split vote of 4-2. Some of the other savings will come from position cuts.

The good news is that enrollment per grades has stabilized or increased from 75 to 95 students.

Other cities in Minnesota have made similar decisions - MACCRAY school district of Maynard of Clara City and Raymond we central Minnesota. The Warroad model was framed after Maynard. The students will attend school for 64 minutes more Monday through Thursday than they did Monday through Friday, and attend school for 144 days instead of 170.

Parent comments were mixed in this decision. They wonder what the children will be doing on their Fridays when both parents work. Phil Heppner, chairman of the school board, indicates that not all details are worked out – but they are committed to making it work.

I’ve also heard about 12 month schools across the U.S. Students may attend class for 4 months and have a month off. One SITE I found has blogs about a whole array of options for schools terms/years and tracks.

This is a very interesting discussion. More than once I’ve heard higher education employees say they would love to go to a four day work week and many classes are less than five days a week. So maybe higher education should be looking at the process. What would we be saving?

Blog 15 - Bargain Hunters Get Ready!

This week I was looking for something related to spring. Since we still have high water in our basement and there isn’t much I can do until it recedes, I’m grabbing at straws. My mother is looking at apartments and thinking about selling her house so there isn’t a need to give her certificates for flowers this year for Mother’s Day. I have too many dilemmas in my life right now. Thus my search for a brighter side.

What is more spring in North Dakota than Garage Sales. The Fargo Forum is filled with them already! This site lists them by area in town – North Fargo, South Fargo, West Fargo, Dilworth, Moorhead, and Surrounding Area! Guess that’s what you get in the big city. Not only are there hundreds in each section of town, but if you advertise with the Forum, you can be included in a City Map of where you are located so the deal seekers can find you.

My sister is talking about a sale at my Mom’s since she’s moving into something smaller. Sounds like work for me but what a way to clean out! For years my Mom has been offering things to us kids that she’s ready to part with. What could she have left? I think we’ll be surprised.

Many of the sale list them as multi family or associated with a church or organization as a fund raiser. Right now the list isn’t too large but give it a couple weeks and Fargo will be buzzing.
Then there is clean up week where curb items are traded with lesser quality stuff off your truck. You’ll see college students doing that and I think my daughter and her roommates will be among the traders.

Anyway – if you’re looking for the collectable bargain, get you paper every Wednesday to map your trek to find everything you could want!

International Flare At VCSU

The article I read this week was found on VOANews.com. It is the story of how and why a foreign student chose Valley City State University. It was interested to hear that many of the reasons Fakira Soumaila chose VCSU coincides with why many students choose VCSU.

Fakira indicates that she wanted to study in the United States and size was a determining factor in her decision. She talks about the teachers being very willing to help in and out of class. She also talks about the friendly staff helping to integrate her into the campus and city community. Being in smaller class sizes helped Fakira quickly improve her English speaking skills.

Fakira’s goal is to be a pediatrician and she will go to medical school when she graduates from VCSU. She feels VCSU is challenging her to be prepared for that next step.

It’s interesting that no matter where students are from, they choose the college they choose for much of the same reasons. If you poll VCSU students, you’ll hear that smaller class size is a big reason for coming here.

VCSU is fortunate to have students like Fakira willing to travel to a country and quite small town she’s never been to before to gain her education. Not only is she getting what she wants, but those on campus are learning from her also. My family has been host family to her and we have learned so many things about her home country as well and her growing up years in Rome. Because I’ve not been overseas, this was a great opportunity for me as well as for her. I feel richer having Fakira and other foreign students at VCSU and I hope I return that to them as well.

I was fortunate enough to be involved in a Holiday dinner with the foreign students on campus. After dinner they played Taboo – a game where you try to get your team to say a word you describe without saying a provided list of words. It was amazing to hear the students from various countries talking so fast I couldn’t understand much of what they said while they had no problem at all.

Blog # 13

Bobcat Cuts MORE Jobs

The Fargo Forum reported this week that 150 employees at their Gwinner plant were being laid off. The layoffs will go through at least the first quarter of NEXT year. The layoffs are caused by reduction in demand for the Bobcat Skid Steer they have been famous for for decades.

This is another example of world marketing company –no matter where they are located – having to make tough decisions. If a company sells there produce anywhere outside the region, they have been deeply affected by the poor world economy. It isn’t just in the U.S.
When a company is affected, so is the community. The article says that about half of the students in the school district have parents employed at Bobcat.

When you are a community of 750 like Gwinner, the whole town will feel it. In this case, not just Gwinner. Employees come from Lisbon, Forman and Valley City and every other town nearby. One of those employees is my brother. He’s been at Bobcat for about 14 years. So far he has a job. But one small mistake and the company will use that to dismiss him. Like during one of the last big snow storms when everything was closed. That day was the only operating day Bobcat had scheduled to be open for the week (due to earlier cuts). If you didn’t show up, you got a slip. After a couple slips for any other reason they could find, you could be dismissed. Since many of the employees drive out of town to get to work, they had to decide what was more important, my job or my life? How can you expect someone to make that choice!

For the employees laid off there are no other job choices in the Gwinner area. They have homes they could lose without employment. They have children rooted in the community and schools that are affected also.

I can’t imagine what those losing their jobs are going through. I just hope something breaks for the good before it gets any worse.

Week 12 Blog ... Still Flooding

The Fairfield’s made the news again … and of course it’s related to flooding.

This past weekend Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Disaster Assistance Employee Ken Jordan, for Region 8 toured the Sheyenne River Valley and made his way onto the Fairfield Ranch, or lake as it has appeared the past couple weeks.

The Valley City Times Record covered the story tells that because President Obama has declared this area a federal disaster area, FEMA will cover 75% of costs accrued by local governments for diking, sandbagging, police and sheriff's offices. Dave Lowry, a FEMA public affairs officer based in Arizona indicates that if there is enough dollars claimed by individuals in the area, they can get assistance also. No dollar amount of damage is listed to quality. I believe it has to do with the numbers effected as well as the dollars but I couldn’t find anything specific about that.

The two federal employees and various Barnes County Officials toured “Columbia Grain facility, damaged when high water caused soybeans in a hopper to swell, dislodging the feeder which loads grain unto railroad cars.” It is a business that has never had water issues before.

The group made their way down the valley and that’s when they talked with my husband, Dan. We live on the farm where Dan has lived his whole life. He is part of that land. And for the first time in his life, he’s talked about leaving it. We’re not as young as we were during the last two or three floods and the exhaustion of continued checking water and pumps will last a few more weeks. We’re both ready to relocate in order to avoid this ever again. If that means leaving this land that is in Dan’s blood – and mine – that’s what we’ll do. So ... if you know of about 60 acres of higher ground looking for an owner, we’re in the market.

Week 11 Blog - Cherry Blossom Festival

Needing a break from the water, ice, and snow that dominates my life in the Sheyenne River Valley the past couple weeks, I found something that I’ve heard about and would someday like to experience … like today maybe!!!

The Annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C. lasts about two weeks. It is a city wide event with “more than 200 international cultural performances and over 90 other special events”. Over 1 million people flock to Washington each year for this celebration. It is said that the most picturesque scenes are found at the Tidal Basin where you can view the various national monuments surrounded by the pink blooms.

“The Japanese flowering cherry tree, known in Japanese as “sakura,” is a symbol of affection, good fortune and new beginnings.” In 1912, Japan gifted the U.S. with 3,000 trees that are planted throughout the city and bloom about this time each year, dependent on weather. The celebration takes place annually and has for so many years, it’s an automatic. Crowds of people that continue to attend the festival make a sure thing for continuing indefinitely.

For some great video about the festival and reactions from those in Washington, click the following: http://www.thenewsroom.com/details/2038749

Not only is there is festival in Washington, but also in Northern California, Philadelphia, Southern California, Hawaii, Colorado, Georgia, and Brooklyn just to name a few. And don’t forget – Japan!

A little known fact about this year’s festival in Washington is that North Dakota Rodeo Queen and VCSU alum, Jessinta Hammer will be riding in the parade in Washington, D.C. She was invited by Miss Rodeo Virginia to ride with her and Jessinta will be on her way east at the end of this week. Jessinta is from Fort Ransom.

If Washington, D.C. needs a celebration of this sort after their winter, imagine what North Dakota residents need – or will need – if winter every leaves us. I know our city and county people haven’t had a chance to think about the celebration after all we are going through but I will do what every is necessary to help make it something with smiles and appreciation for all who have given to our flood fight.

Week 10 Blog

There is a country song that goes “Here he comes again …” That song could be sung by those around the Sheyenne River Valley with “He” being rising water. The specific story I’m referring to was in the Valley City Times Record on Friday, March 27. My Blog is late because I spend most of last week fighting those rising waters at my home. I attended the meeting referred to in this article because it directly affects me and my home. The topic was the crest expected in Valley City and how home owners downstream can gage the plans according to what they remember from 1997 or neighbors can tell for those who were not there 12 years ago.

The article indicates that there were “maps of the Kathryn Road showing the 100-Year flood plain”, indicates that there are people who can help and who to call if needed, reports on getting sand and sandbags delivered to rural areas, and the amount of water that will be coming out of Baldhill Dam north of Valley City. It was good information but only raised more questions.
The meeting was relatively calm compared to the meeting held earlier in the week with towns people. Some were upset about their sprinkler system being destroyed by trucks hauling dirt for a dyke. If wish someone would destroy something putting a dyke by my house. On Tuesday night, March 24, water from the beautiful Sheyenne River was about 4 yards from my door – about 2.5 feet higher than in 1997.

On the positive side, everyone I know has offered help for us and others up and down the valley as well as in Valley City. This same issue of the TR has a story about people giving of their time to sandbag. Our phone rings constantly with offers of manpower, generators, trucks, and a place to stay if we have to evacuate. We truly do live in an area of generous people. Doesn’t save me house, but it does save my belief that tragedy brings us together.