Posted on 06/02/2012 8:22:52 AM PDT by thackney
chool officials in the northwestern North Dakota oil patch say they are in a state of emergency because of an influx of students and need state help.
Schools might need as much as $200 million to handle as many as 3,000 new students next year, Stanley Superintendent Kent Hjelmstad told state legislators during a Thursday meeting in Williston. The amount is double the estimate in a recent study done by a Bismarck consultant at the request of Gov. Jack Dalrymple.
Hjelmstad said needs include new buildings, additional staff, more buses, support for a growing special education population, teacher housing and equipment.
"There are literally kids standing there saying 'Where are you going to put us?'" Hjelmstad said.
The oil boom in western North Dakota is drawing companies and workers from around the country. Officials have been working to ease a housing crunch, and as more housing becomes available, more oil workers are going to bring their families, Hjelmstad said.
Several legislators on the Education Funding and Taxation Committee questioned why an increased property tax base in oil patch communities where new housing is being built won't be able to support growing school districts. Superintendents said eventually that will happen, but right now many students are living in temporary housing that doesn't generate tax revenue.
School officials also said they cannot wait until next year's legislative session for relief.
"These are right-now issues because we have to have the teachers by August. We have to have a place for them to live by August," Ray Superintendent Marlyn Vatne said.
McKenzie County Superintendent Steve Holen suggested several possible solutions, including re-evaluating school districts' debt limits, providing low-interest construction bonds and adjusting how oil and gas production tax revenue is distributed.
Committee Chairwoman RaeAnn Kelsch, R-Mandan, said she has suggested that cities assess a fee for new homes being built that could be designated to new school buildings.
Without trying to excuse all the cost, you should understand the run-up of costs for everything in a true boom.
Hjelmstad said needs include new buildings, additional staff, more buses, support for a growing special education population, teacher housing and equipment.
There is NO available housing. Cost of teacher includes not only inflated wages, but actual housing, not just a housing allowance.
We had stories of some areas of the Bakken production paying $15 for fast food workers, just to keep them.
And right in the heart of the oil boom sits Williston, North Dakota, in the center of the Bakken Shale Formation, a massive oil reserve. Because of the oil boom, the city has seen its average wages increase from $32,000 in 2006 to about $80,000 today; unemployment drop to around one percent; and monthly rent for a one bedroom skyrocket to $2,300
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/housing/2012/05/rent-bubble-day-2300-one-bedroom-north-dakota/2106
...there are deals to be found. A 36-foot trailer: $1,000 (but only if you’re tired of “MAN CAMP HOUSING”). A 320-square-foot, soon to be built apartment, in a building that looks like a dense apartment building in Tokyo: $1,000. And if you don’t mind a bit of a commute into the city, a 400-square-foot one bedroom apartment 60 miles from Williston will only run you about $850 a month.
Absolutely! It would be an excellent time to take the bold step of privatizing education. Now that would produce some real progress. The worst thing that happened in this country was when government took over education. Innovation stopped dead in its tracks.
The problem wasn't falling population but lack of jobs to keep the kids there. North Dakotans have big families. As the joke goes, what else is there to do on long, cold winter nights?
But I remember the "Buffalo Commons" idea well. We hated it! It was considered a conspiracy of our eastern overlords to depopulate the state. If you Google "Prairie Empire" and "Rural Depopulation" you might even get an article I wrote explaining the politics of conservative states like North Dakota only sending Democrats to Washington to maximize their take of federal pork.
The current oil boom finally ended that. When Comrade Conrad retires at the end of this current congress, there will be no more Democrats in North Dakota's congressional delegation.
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