Submitted Photo The New Town School District has added a new high school and a new career and technical center in recent years.

NEW TOWN – New Town Public Schools are also a major landlord in the city, out of necessity, said Superintendent Marc Bluestone.

“We didn’t have any housing in our community,” said Bluestone.

The district now owns 48 rental units between apartments and houses. Forty-seven out of the 48 rentals are occupied by school district employees. The 48th resident is a long-term tenant who has always been a good renter. Bluestone said the district made it clear that their housing would go to school employees, but also said they would not force anyone to leave who had been living in the rentals before the school district bought them up. Another company that did force long-term tenants to leave housing in New Town caused a lot of hard feelings in the community, said Bluestone.

Without the subsidized housing, it would have been difficult or impossible to attract teachers to the community, since most would not have been able to afford to live there at rents that could go as high or higher than $1,000 per month.

“That has helped us immensely in getting teachers to stay and attracting other teachers to the district,” said Bluestone.

Housing shortages have probably curbed some of the growth in New Town over the past few years. Families coming to the area with the oil boom might have been more likely to relocate to other communities like Stanley that had housing available.

“We’re kind of landlocked in some respects about getting housing built,” said Bluestone.

Housing for sale might include older houses, but younger buyers aren’t necessarily interested in purchasing older homes.

Bluestone said when other housing is eventually built, he anticipates that New Town could see an additional 35 to 40 students added to the district.

The oil boom already stopped what had been a slow decline in numbers.

Business manager Dan Uran, who is also the mayor of New Town, said a couple of decades ago the enrollment had dropped to about 625 students Now it is up to 925 students.

The district has added on to the school in recent years too. In 1997, the district added the first part of its middle school. In the past five years, the district has also built a new high school, a new gymnasium, a new career and technical education center and have added on to the elementary school. Some of the funding for the projects came from royalty money, said Bluestone.

An addition to the new gym is being planned and Bluestone said another addition at the elementary might become necessary, though the district will have to build carefully due to lack of available land.

“We’re one or two classrooms away from having no room down at the elementary school,” said Bluestone.

Students at the district also have a number of educational opportunities, including dual credit classes that enable them to earn college credit, and classes in the Hidatsa language that are offered. Kids can also take classes in tribal culture and tribal government.

While some of the students in the district deal with problems caused by generational poverty, Bluestone said the district also has a number of services available to help students graduate on time. There is an onsite daycare center where students who are parents can leave their babies during the school day. There is no cost for the daycare for students who are parents. Teachers and staff members can also leave their kids at the daycare at a subsidized rate. There is an alternative school program and regular tutoring or classes offered on Saturday to help students make up missing work. Parents are texted or emailed if their children have missed an assignment. A social worker is available at each building and there is also a graduation coach at the high school level.

Bluestone said the board has been generous in supporting programs and there are more teachers employed by the district than one might expect for a town the size of New Town. The average starting salary for a beginning teacher has increased to $42,500, going from 49th in the state to eighth in the last several years. Bluestone said teachers have also benefited from the success of the school district financially.

Bluestone said the goal of the district is to help students to become successful and to graduate from high school.