Guinness Book Of World Records? Children From 20 Foreign Countries And ALL 50 US States Have Enrolled At The Watford City Elementary School -- May 3, 2015

Updates

Later, 9:19 p.m. CT: to add to the story below, the new link --

Children from 20 foreign countries and all 50 states have enrolled in Watford City's Elementary School in the past three years.

It would be interesting to know if any other elementary school in the US can beat that. I know in NYC there are a lot of folks from foreign countries, but I doubt if workers from all 50 states have moved to NYC for work.

Later, 9:10 p.m. CT: to add to the story below, two points:

• apparently Watford City has the second largest elementary school in the state; and,
• Watford City will go to Class A high school competition in 2017-2018 school year, right up there with Dickinson and Williston and Minot and ...

Original Post

Don tells me there was an interesting story on this evening's new in the Dickinson area, a story of the "schools without borders" in the Watford City area. That story is now on the net at this link.

Here is a fairly recent article that tells the story in Watford City with regard to schools. As the slump in oil prices continue, I assume oil companies will continue to circle the wagons, keeping Williston and Watford City relatively busy while other western North Dakota cities take the brunt of the slowdown.

One of the metrics that will be interesting to follow will be public school enrollment in western North Dakota in the fall of 2016, not this coming school year, but the school year that begins in the autumn of 2016.

Now, back to that story. The AP is reporting:

WATFORD CITY, N.D. (AP) — Every morning as principal Brad Foss arrives at his school — after just a 60-second commute — he's reminded of oil's giant footprint in this town.

There's the revolving-door student roster that reads like random pages of a school atlas: Jiang from China, Emma from Utah, Jose from Guatemala, Omar from Arizona.

There are the teachers, many of them transplants, including a dedicated Kurdish refugee who's helping dozens of students learn English, a job that would never have existed until now. And there are rows of white trailers, temporary homes for several teachers — and for Foss, who's just a minute's walk from his office.

Like the rest of this town, Watford Elementary School has been transformed by the oil boom. Families with young kids are constantly moving in, undeterred by the recent plunge in oil prices. The 700-plus enrollment is more than double that of 2011.

Many newcomers are the offspring of riggers, welders, truck drivers, engineers and others lured from across America — and around the world — by the prospect of good jobs.

Their arrival has brought diversity to a school that until recently had virtually none. "We have a world community within our own little school," boasts Foss. "The kids here can bring the globe to life, and that's kind of cool." 

Much more at the link.

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Highway 85, Going South Toward Alexander

South Of The Lewis and Clark Bridge

Video taken April 28, 2015     I do not know what that large enclosed, circular structure is being used for that we passed at 44 seconds into the video.  

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Baltimore:

• black mayor
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• half of police department is black
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• 10 out of 15 city council members are black
• 63% of the city is black
• 87% of the city voted for Barack Obama
• hasn't had a Republican mayor since 1967

Tell us again how Baltimore is a "white Republican" problem.