“We were wishing kids good morning and welcoming them back. I don’t know if we got every kid, but caught a lot of them as they walked in. So that was fun to get to see them, especially, coming into the brand new building,” Principal Harlan Johnson said.

The opening of Minot North brings with it a significant shift for the Minot Public School District, which now boasts two 9-12 high schools between North and Magic City Campus along with a new middle school at the former Central High School campus. The opening of classes was preceded by an open house on Tuesday evening for approximately 1,000 students and their families as they got the lay of the land and attended various assemblies and games, including a rendition of the school song by the Sentinel football team for the entire student body.

“Holy smokes, there were so many people here I couldn’t believe it. Our marketing teacher Heather Speer sold almost all of our product last night in one evening – sweatshirts, T-shirts, all of those things. She’s got a rush order coming in, which is an awesome thing. I can see the sense of pride. The kids were so excited to be here last night,” Johnson said.

But Wednesday’s “soft start” wasn’t without its hiccups as students and parents dealt with some congestion in the parking lot as they arrived in the morning.

A Central Middle School student hustles to beat the bell on the first day of classes on Wednesday morning.

“There was a little bit of a backup as we were watching. It didn’t look horrible but the kids said it was taking a little bit of time as they were coming in. I kinda expected more right away. I’ll be curious now as we go because there’ll be some older kids who won’t have a first hour and some who won’t have a seventh hour, so that will help with our traffic flow,” Johnson said. “I do worry about the road out front (21st Avenue Northwest), just being a two lane like that. Where that goes, I don’t know. That’s a bit above my pay grade. We have chatted with the city about if it will be an issue in the future. Because we don’t want to be bad stewards in the area backing up the road as people are trying to get to work either.”

Johnson was hopeful the growing pains and traffic issues would work themselves out in the coming weeks as the students and staff get accustomed to their schedules. Johnson said additional kinks have manifested for some students who found themselves enrolled at the wrong high school, which is based on the location of their place of residence.

“We’re working through all of that. We did send stuff out, but you know how that goes. And there are some who change addresses. Myself and Minot High Principal David McQueen chat a lot, making sure that we got kids where they’re supposed to be. We had three boys this morning who for some reason were placed at Minot High.They were in my boundary and I don’t know how that goofed up. But we got it fixed, we got their classes and got them rolling,” Johnson said. While workers are still working on finishing touches outside and will be actively working on completing the theater and aquatics spaces, Johnson expressed gratitude to the community and the district for their support in making the day possible, saying he felt, “privileged even to be here.”

“I think of all the people in our district, and how thankful for everything they’ve done to bring this all together,” Johnson said.