“We said good morning to the children and welcomed them. I don’t know if we caught every child, but we caught many of them coming in. It was fun to see them, especially when they entered the brand new building,” Said Principal Harlan Johnson.

The opening of Minot North marks a significant change for the Minot Public School District, which now has two high schools for grades 9-12 between North and Magic City campuses, as well as a new middle school on the former Central High School campus. The opening of classes was preceded by an open house for about 1,000 students and their families on Tuesday evening, during which they familiarized themselves with the site and participated in various assemblies and games, including a performance of the school song by the Sentinel football team for the entire student body.

“My goodness, there were so many people here, I couldn’t believe it. Our marketing teacher Heather Speer sold almost all of our products in one night last night – sweatshirts, t-shirts, all that stuff. She got a rush order, which is a great thing. I can see the pride. The kids were so excited to be here last night,” said Johnson.

But Wednesday “soft start” was not without problems, as students and parents had to contend with a certain traffic jam in the parking lot upon their arrival in the morning.

A Central Middle School student hurries to ring the bell on the first day of school Wednesday morning.

“As we were watching, there was a little bit of a backlog. It didn’t look bad, but the kids said it would take a while to get in. I was expecting more right away. I’m curious now because there will be some older kids who don’t have a first period and some who don’t have a seventh period, so that will improve our traffic flow,” said Johnson. “I’m concerned about the road ahead of us (21st Avenue Northwest), which is just two lanes. Where that’s going, I don’t know. That’s a little above my pay grade. We’ve talked to the city about whether that’s going to be a problem in the future. Because we don’t want to be bad stewards of the area and jam the road when people are trying to get to work.”

Johnson hoped the teething issues and traffic problems would resolve themselves in the coming weeks as students and staff adjusted to their schedules. Johnson said some students had additional problems because they enrolled in the wrong high school based on where they lived.

“We’re working through all of that. We’ve been sending things out, but you know how it is. And some people change their addresses. David McQueen, the principal of Minot High School, and I talk a lot to make sure the kids get where they need to go. This morning we had three boys who were placed at Minot High School for some reason. They were in my jurisdiction and I don’t know how that went wrong. But we got it sorted out, we got their classes and we got them going.” Johnson said. While workers are still putting the finishing touches on the exterior and are actively working to complete the theater and water features, Johnson thanked the community and county for their support in making this day possible and said he feels “I feel privileged to even be here.”

“I am thinking of all the people in our district and am grateful for everything they have done to make this possible,” said Johnson.